Exceeding Expectations
by jamieallover1225
Summary: As the distant relative of the same Colonel that Captain America worked with, Molly Phillips has been hired to help Steve Rogers get reacquainted with the world. The two are pleasantly surprised when neither of them were what the other was expecting. Steve/OC Post-Movie.
1. Chapter 1

Director Nick Fury walked into the gym that Captain Steve Rogers, or Captain America, had been given. This was part of the arrangement Tony Stark had set up for him, along with his new apartment with the rest of the Avengers team at Stark Towers. Rogers was busy pounding away at his punching bag when he heard the door open, pausing only to wipe the sweat from his brow and look over in Fury's direction.

"World in danger again, Director?" Cap asked as he sat down a bench and rubbed his face with a small towel.

"Not this time, Captain." Fury started, a small smirk on his face at the fact that the Captain was, in fact, wrong. "I came to inform you that we'll be assigning an agent of ours to aide you in becoming reacquainted with the world, get you up to speed." He told the young captain, handing him a file.

"Her name is Molly Phillips. You might have been familiar with a Colonel Chester Phillips back in the day?" Fury said as Steve opened up the smooth manila folder and looked at the girl's picture. At the mention of the Colonel, Steve looked up at him.

"Uh, yeah. He was in charge of my training, had a hand in picking me for the project. Steve blinked, "You're not going to tell me they're related are they?" He asked, looking down at the picture of a brightly smiling young girl with red hair and freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks. She obviously didn't take after the hard ass he remembered.

Nick Fury only smirked as he began walking out of Roger's gym, "He was her great great grandfather, or something like that." Fury stopped at the door, "We'll be bringing her in tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be seeing you tomorrow Captain." And with that Fury was gone, leaving the super soldier alone to look at the file he had been handed. If this girl was anything like Colonel Phillips, he wasn't sure how this whole thing could turn out.

* * *

Molly Phillips stepped out of the vehicle and began walking toward Stark Industries main tower, closely following Director Fury. She hadn't been with S.H.E.I.L.D. very long. She was hired when Captain America had resurfaced, but after his initial reaction to everything the company had decided it would be a better idea for them to wait until the Captain had gotten a little bit more comfortable with where he had been, let him come to terms with things a bit. Then everything with Loki happened just as they were about to send her in and she had to wait even longer to meet the ever so famous Captain America.

She had to admit, she was nervous. When she was little she would hear all sorts of things about Captain America. Her great great grandfather was Chester Phillips. He had passed away when she was five at the ripe old age of 104. The man was a hard ass, and also in very good shape for an elderly man. He was going to get as much as he could out of his life time. One of the things that she remembers about him the most are how he would always talk about is time in the war, and how he worked with America's first superhero. She loved it, he was the reason she went and became a history major in college.

Molly was brought back into reality when they entered the building, only to be greeted by Tony Stark himself. This was something that, from what she had gathered from documents on him and such, was very out of character for him. Tony Stark didn't greet guests at the door. He must have wanted to come and check out the 'fresh meat'.

"So this is the mighty Captain's very own Pep, huh?" He asked, eyeing up the girl Nick Fury had brought in. He offered her hand in greeting. He was feeling friendly today.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Stark. I'm Molly Phillips." She said, shaking his hand with a smile. Molly's 'AR's were kind of more like 'AH's, it was part of her Boston accent, something Tony picked up on.

"Nice accent, where you from? Brooklyn, Jersey, Tennessee?" He guessed, making the redhead laugh softly.

"Boston." Which, honestly, came out more like 'Bawstin'. Her accent was prominent on several sounds, but it wasn't something she hated...all the time. She was just happy that it was something relatively subtle.

"We have more important things to handle right now, Stark. You can get yourself acquainted with the girl later." Fury stated, brushing passed Tony to get to the elevator.

Rolling his eyes, Tony patted Molly on the back, ushering her along. "See you later, kid. Don't worry too much about Mace Windu over there." He said in hushed tones, a grin on his face as Molly giggled and followed Fury to the elevator.

The elevator ride was awkwardly silent. Molly kind of hated being in the same space as Nick Fury. He was way too hostile for her tastes. She just kind of stood next to him in the elevator, watching the numbers go up as she patiently waited for the doors to open on whatever floor would take her to Steve Rogers.

* * *

The doors opened up after a few minutes, which actually felt like a few hours, and the two walked out into a gym that was set up and decorated to appear as if it were of the 1940s. Molly guessed this was an attempt to make the Captain more comfortable. Molly simply followed Nick Fury toward a tall young man punching away at a punching bag.

"Captain Rogers." Fury called, causing the man to stop what he was doing and look over at the director and his new 'teacher'. Slightly out of breath, Steve nodded toward the two of them as he began to take the tape off of his hands.

Molly was a little taken aback. He was wearing a pair of khaki pants and fitted white t-shirt that hugged his muscular build in all the right ways. His blonde hair was slightly tousled, from what Molly had assumed to be from all the exercise he had been doing prior to their arrival. The man was a sight to see.

"Captain Rogers, this is Agent Molly Phillips. She'll be the one to help you get back into the world." Fury introduced her, and Molly put on her brightest smile, standing straight forward as she extending a hand toward the man before her. The top of Molly's head probably reached Steve's clavicle, and that was in the three-to-four inch heels she was wearing. She knew she was ready to meet a super soldier, but she wasn't exactly sure she was expecting him to be so... Tall? "It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain Rogers. I look forward to working with you!" She finally managed get out, trying her best not to sound too enthusiastic.

Steve put on a charming smile after wiping his face and hair off with his towel before he shook the small girl's hand. "The pleasure is all mine, Ms Phillips. Please, call me Steve." She was nothing like the Colonel. She was pretty small in height, but she had a nice figure. Her hair was a copper color, kind of like a handful of pennies, that's if saying you had a few that were fresh off the press, then the darkest of colors like it were a few years old and then every shade in between. It fell to her shoulders in soft waves, and she had bangs that swooped across her forehead to the right side of her face. The girl was quite a dame, one of the finest he'd ever met. Her cobalt blue eyes shown brightly, and she had a smile that could bring any man to his knees, not to mention dimples you could lose a coin in. Aside from her very feminine exterior, he had to admit that she had quite the firm hand shake.

"In that case, Steve, please call me Molly."

Nodding toward the pair, Fury announced that he was leaving and left the two alone. "When you two are done getting to know one another, go find Stark and he'll inform you on your living situation, Agent Phillips."

Molly nodded, "Will do, Director Fury." She blinked, "Wait, living-" before she could finish, Fury was already out the door. His blatant ignoring cause her to crinkle her face a bit before turning her attention back toward the Captain, again finding herself a little shocked. Despite being a little more nervous now, she definitely felt more relaxed with Fury gone. She didn't think she had to be so formal now, well at least not as formal as she had been.

"So, hi there?" She asked, a small vaguely nervous smile on her freckle splashed face. Her expression caused Steve to chuckle lightly, he smiled down at her.

"What's the matter? You nervous?"

Molly giggled, "Something like that..." She looked down a little, playing with the ends of her hair before finally looking back up into lapis eyes, "You're just a little... Taller, than I expected." She told him, pretty matter of fact-ly.

Her response caused Steve to laugh, causing Molly to smile sheepishly. Steve smiled at her once again, "Well, thats not exactly something I get very often. Usually it's the other way around." He told her, thinking back to all the times people had been surprised at his 'new' physique.

"Oh no! I'm not disappointed, it's not like you didn't meet my expectations, if anything you've only exceeded them!" Molly realized she was rambling, and being 'frazzled' as she called it, the first things she could think of fell out of her mouth. Thoughts that basically involved how attractive she found the Captain. Feeling her cheeks change to a bright pink, Molly just looked at Steve with a slightly exasperated expression, "I'm just going to stop talking before this hole I dug myself gets any deeper."

Steve just smiled at her, he could see things working out well between the two of them.

* * *

**A/N:** Hey guys, I hope you liked the first chapter! It's been a while since I actually sat down and written something for fun, so I really hope you enjoyed it! I look forward to hearing your feedback :)

If you're interested in seeing Molly's outfit you can find it here, just . and take out the spaces:

www dot polyvore dot com / meetin_cap / set?id=51421509If

If I ever go into talking about her outfit or anything I'll just leave it down here :)


	2. Chapter 2

After Molly's little 'outburst' as she was going to call it, Steve excused himself to go change his shirt and freshen up a little bit so that he wouldn't be unpresentable while they spoke for a while. Get to know each other if you will.

She sat silently at a small table that was set up in Steve's gym, playing with the ends of her copper colored hair, patiently waiting for Steve to get back. She couldn't believe that she had been around him for less than fifteen minutes and she was already making a fool of herself. When Steve returned she just smiled at him as he sat down across from her.

Clearly Steve also wasn't really sure what to say. He twiddled his thumbs a bit before looking at her with a nervous smile. "So... Colonel Phillips...?"

Molly smiled a bit, "Yeah, he was my great great grandpa. I only knew him for a little while, he passed away when I was around five. He told me about you all the time though!"

Rubbing the back of his head, nervously, Steve chuckled lightly. "Well, that's good! I felt like I did nothing but get on the man's nerves all the time." He smiled at her apologetically, seeing as how the man died he felt a little bad for bringing it up. When she was at the age of five though? That man must've been in his late forties early fifties when Steve knew him, he couldn't believe he lived that long. "I'm very sorry for your lose though, ma'am, the Colonel was a great man."

At this, it was Molly turn to laugh. Her laugh made Steve smile; it was genuine, sort of like something of a belly laugh. Women in his day didn't laugh loudly like that, they kept it down to practically a giggle or a chuckle.

"Please, Captain. I feel like you know as well as I do that that man was a stickler. He had a sense of humor and good morals, but we both understand that he wasn't always the most pleasant guy to be around."

The Captain laughed, smiling, "Okay, you're right, but still! Those two qualities made him a good guy!"

"Eh, I guess you're right." Molly smiled, "He couldn't have a completely terrible guy back in the day, I mean, he helped pick you for the project." Her comment made the two of them blush lightly. After saying it, Molly realized that she could've come off as flirtatious, which at the moment wasn't really her intention.

"I-I think he had his mind set on someone else at the time, the doctor that developed the serum though, he convinced him." Steve words were tangled at first, her comment brought him back to his usual I'm-not-used-to-being-around-women self. Molly shrugged.

"From what he told me, you couldn't have been a better candidate. I think he was pleasantly surprised." She smiled again, and Steve once again blushed at her words, or maybe it was the soft look in her eyes that she had. He cleared his throat and tried to compose himself.

"So, how did you end up stuck here with me?" He asked smiling at her, deciding to change the subject. Molly returned the smile with enthusiasm.

"Well, that's a really good question! They told me it was because of my degree in History." She leaned back her chair bit, folding her hands in her lap. Molly tilted her head slightly, looking off and thinking about how to continue answering this in the best way possible. "I think it's got something to do with the fact that I'm connected to your past in some way, y'know, since my grandpa worked with you and everything." Molly shrugged again, directing her attention back toward Steve. "SHIELD probably had their eyes on a few other History buffs, but I think my concentration and connection with you won them over."

"Concentration...?" Steve had no idea what she meant by that. _So... SHIELD chose the girl based on her ability to focus? _That didn't sound very good. Seeing the obvious confusion on Steve's face Molly giggled to herself.

"Sorry. Nowadays when you go to college, you have the option of focusing in a particular area within your chosen field of study. I declared myself a History major, and I graduated with a Degree in the History of War and Peace."

Steve was leaning forward, listening intently. He nodded, "So that means you had a 'concentration' in war history?" He was a little taken back by that. War was a terrible thing! He had seen so many good men die and so many innocent people get harmed just in the wake of war. Molly seemed like she was sweet, down to Earth gal, why would she want to learn about that? "I'm sorry, but if you don't mind me asking, what made a dame, eh, I'm sorry, young woman like you so interested in war?" He asked

"It's kind of a long story," Molly smiled, "I come from a family where seriously most of the men went into the military. Before Chester, the colonel, passed away I spent a lot time listening to his stories. Naturally I got interested in history." Steve nodded, letting her know he was listening and that she could continue. Taking a small breath, Molly did so.

"With war, as you know, you go through a lot of things. Some men or women are unfortunate enough to return home and are haunted, if you will, by the things they experienced. Sometimes they can't sleep through the night, sometimes they think nazis-just as an example-are in their closets. It makes these these soldiers very one edge and occasionally a hazard to be around. This condition is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD for short." Steve's eyebrows were now knit together. He still had nightmares about the things that he experienced, but he couldn't believe some people were so distraught by the things they went through. Well, it was believable, but he would hate to live like that. Every day in fear that Hydra was coming after him... Steve was snapped out of his thoughts when Molly began speaking again.

"I have a relative with PTSD. During the war he participated in, the Vietnam War-which we'll get to in our lessons-he was captured by the enemy and held captive for a while until he was rescued. He was alright at first, but after a while he began having night terrors. He and his wife no longer sleep in the same bed, because he would get so violent in his sleep that he almost strangled her one night." His eyes softened. Steve was instantly reminded of Bucky. Bucky... What if he had ended up like that? What if Bucky had survived that mission, gotten married, only to almost kill the woman he loved while he was asleep? He shook it off and went back to the conversation he was having.

"Anyway, I hated the idea of anyone having to go through that. I wanted to help people with the same condition. So I grew up knowing that I wanted to be some kind of therapist or counselor for PTSD patients. When I went to college I dual majored, which meant that I had twice the work load and I was working into two different fields. I graduated with high honors, dual majoring in History and Psychology. I needed the psychology degree before I could get a license, and I figured that knowing about or having idea of what these soldiers went through, and I love history, so it worked out."

Steve just sat there for a moment, slightly in awe at the young woman before him. Here was a girl, who wanted nothing more than to help out soldiers and other people that needed it, and she was going to take on everything she could just to understand what they went through just to help them out. He had no idea people like that still existed. The only people he had met were only interested in doing things for self gain, not for the wellbeing of others. Well, the Avengers were all about helping people and saving the world. You had to think though, Nick Fury only wanted to look good, it was his way or the highway; Natasha didn't care what she had to do as long as she got the information; Thor meant well but he was selfish and had a tendency to demean people; Clint would basically do anything Natasha told him to; Bruce generally hated being around people-sure, he didn't want to harm anyone, but something said it was more him than anyone else; and then you had Tony Stark, the most arrogant, narcissistic man Steve had ever met. The Avengers were good people, but they had they're moments. Steve felt as though he could honestly say that it had been a while since he met a genuinely kind hearted person, until now. "You're amazing..." He breathed.

Molly's cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. She directed her gaze down toward the table and tucked some of her copper colored hair behind her ear. "Th-thank you..." She said softly, not entirely sure what else to say.

Steve leaned back in his chair, covering his face, "I'm sorry! That was uncalled for!" He leaned forward again and rest his arms on the table top, face bright red and eyes bright with worry. "It's just-and-I don't know. I'm so sor-" He was cut off by Molly reaching over and placing one of her slender hands on Steve's arm. He calmed down a bit, and he just looked at her. Her cobalt blue eyes comforting him.

"Don't be sorry, Steve. It's okay." Molly smiled, "We're one-for-one now." She teased, referring to earlier when she had done something similar when she came in. The super soldier let out a small laugh, smiling at her before nodding. This girl had a sense of humor on her.

* * *

**A/N:** Wow, thanks for all of the alerts and favorites, guys! I hope you liked the chapter, sorry it was mostly dialogue though. I've been considering changing the format a bit so that you get everything from Molly's point of view, but as of right now I kind of like giving you a little bit of both sides. Let me know what you guys think! I'll put the next chapter up as soon as possible!

**thecatchisdeadliest **thanks so much! I hope you enjoy future chapters just as much!


	3. Chapter 3

The two sat there and chatted for a while. Basic conversation here and there, like where they were from and what they planned on doing with Steve's 'lessons'. They lost track of time, it had only felt like maybe half an hour had passed when a voice came into the room.

"Captain Rogers, Mr Stark would like to inform you and Miss Phillips that dinner is about to be served." Molly's eyes widened and she glanced around the room. Finding no one, she looked at Steve.

"Eh, thank you, JARVIS. We'll head down now."

"You're welcome, Captain Rogers."

With the most confused expression in the world on her face, Molly just looked at Steve. "What was that!" She was trying her best not use profanity.

Steve chuckled a bit, seeing her confused was actually kind of cute. He stood and helped her from her seat like a gentleman. "That was JARVIS, Tony said he's some kind of artificial intelligence, he kind of runs the house." He told her as they walked toward the elevator to head downstairs. "It takes a little getting used to. I had the same reaction at first." He added, smiling down at her. A still perplexed Molly just nodded.

* * *

A few moments passed when Steve and Molly walked out on the floor of the building where Tony had the dining room, kitchen, and a living room set up. This was usually where all the Avengers would congregate. They would spend some time together here and watch movies or TV, or they would gather around and make small talk. However it wasn't very often that they sat down and had formal dinners. Steve assumed this Pepper's idea, a way to welcome Molly and make a good impression.

Natasha and Clint were sitting on one of the large black couches up in the room, watching something on the large flat screen in the room. Molly introduced herself and just as she was about to initiate conversation, Tony came out from the kitchen, sauntering his way over with a glass of scotch. "Hey Cap! I see you've met little miss Red Sox over here."

The captain blinked, "Red Sox?" Frankly, it took Molly a moment to understand as well. Red Sox. She was from Boston, whose MBL team was the Red Sox, and Molly just so happened to be a redhead. Molly let out a sarcastic laugh and just looked at Tony with a face that said 'Really', "What, was that the best you could come up with, Mr Stark?" All those ER and AR sounds in a row did wonders for her accent, Mistah Stahk.

Tony just smirked, "Oh, theres plenty more where that where that came from, sweetheart. It'll just kinda be one of those things where I get bored with one pet name and call you another." He glanced over at Steve then back to Molly, smirk still on his face, "So, uh, I hope you weren't too rough with him. Stevie here isn't exactly used to one-on-one contact with women, we'd hate for him to have a bad fir-"

"Tony!" He was cut off by a tall strawberry blonde woman coming in from the kitchen, "Be nice to the girl! You're going to scare her off." The woman hit his arm lightly before holding her hand out to shake Molly's hand, to which Molly smiled and took it, "Don't listen to Tony, he's always trying to rile people up."

"It's in my nature." Tony added, taking in some of his scotch. Nudging him again, the woman smiled at Molly, "I'm Pepper Potts, but please, feel free to call me Pepper."

"I'm Molly, ma'am, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Pleasure's all mine."

"Alright! Now that all that stuff is out of the way, lets eat some dinner!" Tony announced, now bored of standing here. "JARVIS, where's Banner? Tell him to get his ass out of the lab and come interact with people for a change!"

"Dr Banner is on his way sir."

On that note the elevator door swished open, and out stepped a man around Tony's age with dark hair with a few grays here and there in a purple shirt and pair of gray slacks that Molly could only guess was Dr Banner. He came out holding a conversation with a young girl wearing blue rectangle framed glasses, around her late twenties probably, with long dark auburn hair in a pair of khaki shorts and navy blue v-neck t-shirt. A large grin made it's way to Molly's face. She recognized the girl as her friend, Aida Agar. Rather than acting on her excitement, she was just going to wait

Tony blinked seeing the young woman, "What are you doing here, Harvard, I thought you had the day off?" Tony grinned wildly, "And with Bruce! You sly dog, I had no idea!"

"Psh, please! I can only handle my mother for so long, Tony, I had to do something." The young woman looked over at Steve and his new found friend, her hazel eyes widened. "Molly!"

Molly laughed and ran up and hugged the young woman before her. "Aida! How have you been!" Molly pulled away from the hug, "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I could ask you the same question, I work for that wonderful piece of narcissism over there." Aida gestured over Tony, earned a snicker from Clint on the couch.

Tony completely ignored her comment, "Aida? Thats how you say your name, like _aid_ a friend? Not like IDAho potatoes?" He asked, putting an emphasis on aid and IDA as he spoke.

Aida rolled her eyes, "Yes, Tony. I've even told you that before, back when I first started working for you." She put her attention back on Molly, "Now seriously, what are you doing here, Molly?"

"Um, I work for SHIELD now."

Aida made a face, her nose scrunching up and her eye brows knitting together, "Ew, really?" Her reaction earned a stifled laugh from Tony, and looks from both Natasha and Clint. "Hey now, nothing against you two, but Fury's a dick."

Clint thought about it and nodded, looking over at Natasha, "We can't really fight her on that one." Natasha just shrugged.

"I'm not like a field agent or anything, I'm not like those two, I'm just here to help Steve out."

"Oh okay, cool, so SHIELD's taking little girls away from what they should be doing, like making differences and higher education or things like that, and they're telling them to give history lessons to the world's favorite all American freeze pop?" She looked over at Steve apologetically, "I'm sorry Steve, no offense to you." Tony had a slight frown on his face, he wished he had come up with that line.

He simply nodded, "None taken, ma'am, I understand."

Molly just looked at Aida with a look Steve hadn't seen yet. Her cobalt blue eyes looked hurt, "You're really gonna do this right now, Addy?" She asked, her voice dropping down to a whisper.

Out of the corner of her eye, Aida saw Bruce check his pulse next to her. She took a deep breath and just looked at Molly, "No, but I wish you had told me about it sooner." She replied, her getting softer as well. Molly smiled hugging the young woman again, Aida hugged back before pushing her away lightly. "Don't think you're off the hook, I'm still gonna lecture you about this another day."

* * *

During dinner, which was actually just a few boxes of pizza that Tony had ordered from a few blocks over, the group just had light conversation.

"Where's Thor?" Aida asked, taking a swig of her drink.

"He had business to take care of in Asgard, he said he'd come back when he could." Natasha replied. Aida nodded.

Tony sat there eyeing up Molly and Aida with a great amount of curiosity. The one girl worked for him for the past three years, and the other he had done more than enough research on. "So, how do you two know each other?"

Molly and Aida looked at each other, Molly just shrugged, letting Aida know she could give the response. "When I was little I lived next door to them for a while, I made friends with her brother and sister. Moved away, came back for my senior year of high school, did the whole college at Harvard thing. When it was time for Molly here to go college, I let her live with me since I lived a few minutes away from where she would be going."

"So basically you're like the family friend type deal?" Clint asked, swallowing his piece of pizza.

The two nodded, "Yup, she's kinda like the little sister I never knew I wanted I guess you could say."

"Aww, Harvard, I didn't know you were such a softy."

"Don't ruin my dinner, Tony, I already had my lunch ruined by my mom wondering why I don't have a husband yet."

"Just tell her you're bumping uglies with Bruce."

The whole table went silent, aside from the sound of Molly almost losing her drink. Bruce sat there awkwardly, deciding to take a sip of his own drink, a faint shade of red creeping to his cheeks. Aida's face was already red as she sat there giving Tony a look that would've made Loki cry. "_What_?" Molly practically shouted. That was when chaos let loose.

Bruce received a congratulations from Clint, and asked how he managed to do it. Molly sat there rambling off at Aida about what the hell Tony was talking about. Pepper was yelling at Tony for saying such things. The only relatively calm conversation going on at that table was the one Steve initiated with Natasha, asking what 'bumping uglies' meant, only to receive an explanation that made him, too, turn a faint shade of pink.

Aida stood up from the table, throwing her hands in the hair. "For crying out loud! I am NOT sleeping with Bruce! Tony you're lucky I'm not ripping out your damn arc reactor. Stop starting trouble before I_ show_ you trouble!"

"Fiery redhead, aren't you?" At Tony's comment, Aida just let out a loud 'ugh' and dropped back into her seat.

"Whose idea was it to get four redheads together at a table, anyway?" Clint asked, earning himself a smack to the back of his head from Natasha.

* * *

After dinner, Natasha helped Pepper clean up while Clint and Tony, along with Aida and Bruce, went to the living room. Steve and Molly stayed at the kitchen table, talking back and forth once again about a few things just to get to know one another before they began their actual lessons.

In the living room, Aida stood up and stretched, "Alright guys, it was great seeing you but I think I'm gonna head back down to the lab get myself ready to head home." She said, waving a good bye as she made her way toward the elevator. Bruce stood and followed, "I'll go help you out."

"Is that what they call it nowadays?" Tony called after them.

"Shut up, Stark!" Aida shouted, flipping him off as the elevator door closed.

Tony laughed before he remembered something. "Oh, Red Sox!"

Hearing her new nickname from Tony, Molly looked over from the table, "Yeah?"

"Have the star spangled man show you to your room, you'll be staying in the room across the hall from his."

Molly blinked, remembering Fury's words from earlier about living arrangements. "I'm staying here?"

"Yup, Fury had all of your stuff brought over, it's all in your room. Welcome to your new home, sweet thing."

* * *

Down in one of Tony's labs, Aida gathered laptop and few notes she had taken earlier and stuffed them into her backpack.

"That was quite a fit you threw earlier..." Bruce said to her, handing her a few files to work on at home. Aida was a chemical and physical biologist, having graduated from Harvard University with the respective degree at the top of her class. She had been working for Stark Industries for about three years, just after Tony's Ironman debut. After the alien invasion she jumped on the opportunity to work with Bruce Banner.

"Yeah, well, Tony shouldn't go spreading rumors." Aida practically snapped as she grabbed the folder from Bruce. With her temper, she was surprised Tony let her work with Bruce. Oddly enough, the two worked very well together.

"I'm talking about the one before that. What was that about, anyway?"

Aida sighed, turning around to face Bruce. "Molly is one of the smartest girls I know and she wants nothing more than to help people and prove herself to her family. She comes from a family where literally everyone is in the military except for her, because of this she thinks she needs to prove herself by being 'part' of something."

Bruce nodded, rolling a pen around in his fingers, "And you think she's making a bad decision."

"Close. I think she's making a _terrible_ decision working for SHIELD, Bruce." Aida sighed, pulling herself up onto one of the tables in the lab. "I've met Nick the dick Fury all of three times, Bruce, and I don't like him. The first time Molly does something against his wishes or not in the 'How to be Asshole' by Nick Fury hand guide, he's going to get rid of her!"

"Why is that your problem...?" He asked, taking a few steps forward.

"I told you, Molly is one of the smartest girls I know, not to mention she's like my baby sister. She graduated summa cum laude from Villanova with degrees in both History and Psychology, and she's like the sweetest girl on the planet. She remembers everything and she's just-she's just _a good person_, and it just sucks to know that she thinks she has to work for SHIELD to help Steve out." She stopped, running a hand through her hair. "I'm not upset that she's helping Steve, she's always wanted to meet him, her grandpa wouldn't shut up about him. It's just... I don't want her to get hurt..." Aida sighed, leaning forward to put her elbows on her knees and rest her head against her hands.

Bruce put a hand on Aida's shoulder hesitantly, causing her to look up at him, he put on a small smile, "I...I'm sure everything will work out." He told her. Bruce wasn't good at this whole consoling thing, he had no idea what to say to make her feel better. Aida just smiled back before hopping off the table and grabbing her backpack and heading toward the elevator.

She looked back at Bruce as she stepped on the contraption to leave the tower. "Get some sleep, Banner...and thanks for the help." Bruce just smiled and waved good bye to her.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you so much for all of the favorites and alerts guys! I'm sorry there wasn't as much Molly/Steve in this chapter. I kind of wanted to add in a little more of Molly's back story, and part of me got carried away with Aida and Bruce. I got a little attached to them so I'm considering writing a sister story to this one that focuses around those two.

**Amber-Jade James** thank you so much for your reviews, they mean a lot! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

Steve laid there in his bed for a while. He had known this girl for less than twenty-four hours and he already felt as though he had known her for years, this was all just based on things they discussed. Her name was Molly Agatha Phillips, she was born on Christmas(which he thought was crazy), she was 22, she was a dual major, she had an older brother and an older sister, her favorite colors were blue and orange because they were complimentary. Molly liked hockey, her favorite teams being the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins. She loved bears.

Something about her reminded him of home. He didn't feel as fidgety around her as he did most women, he didn't get tongue tied. Well, not as often at least. Still, she made him feel...comfortable?

Staring tomorrow, or rather that day seeing as how it was so early in the morning, Molly Agatha Phillips of Boston, Massachusetts was going to be Steve's 'teacher'. They were starting with WWII, a war Steve was very familiar with. This way Molly could gradually bring him up to speed on history while at the same time trying to introduce him to his very 'futuristic' surroundings.

* * *

Very early that morning, Molly found herself awake and ready to do anything. On her bed she had several colorful binders varying in thickness spread out before her. One was devoted to WWII up until 1949. The next covered the 1950(The Korean War) through 1959, briefly touching over the initiations of the Vietnam War. There was a binder set aside for the Vietnam War itself, the cover of the binder marking the years '1955-1964 & 1959-1974', she also had binders labelled for the decades following, the 60's, 70's, etc. though those were much smaller up until you got to 2000-Present. She spent a good amount of time putting together these notebooks for Steve, as a guide to help him follow along while she was trying to find ways to connect activities and other things into helping Steve get a handle on everything that happened.

Today was WWII Lesson Day. Now, Steve had already known something about WWII, seeing as how he was in it and everything, but he went under before the war ended. To make things a little more interesting for Steve, or at least she hoped it would interest him and perhaps take his mind of things, Molly had a board game. This board game was called Axis and Allies.

Axis and Allies was sort of like Risk or Stratego, only slightly more complicated. In this game, the Allied powers had to work together to overthrow the Axis powers, kind of like in real life. With the version that Molly had you could play as the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union for the Allies and you could play as Germany, Italy, and Japan as the Axis. Molly only hoped that this would make learning a little more fun for Steve. She even planned on trying to get a few of the others in on playing. Something told her Tony couldn't turn down a challenge.

After a few hours of playing around with all of her binders full notes, adding minor facts here and there, Molly decided to head down to the kitchen. She didn't bother changing out of her pajamas, she was just wearing an oversized t-shirt with the logo to some ice cream shop on it along with a pair of shorts. Upon entering the kitchen, she found Clint, wide awake and making breakfast.

"Good morning, Clint!" She greeted, sounding delightfully surprised. Clint smiled at her.

"G'morning, Molly! Do you want anything for breakfast?"

Molly shook her head, "No, it's okay Clint, you don't have to. I'll just do it la-"

"No, it's fine, really! Trust me, if it were a problem you would know. Besides, I'm already working on makin' food for me and Tasha, so it's no big deal." He looked at her with a grin, "So what do you say? I make some pretty mean french toast."

Laughing, Molly gave in, "Alright, alright, you got me. French toast it is then."

"You got it, sweetcakes."

Molly just laughed and put the tea kettle on, she even thought to get a pot of coffee. While breakfast was cooking Clint and Molly talked back and forth, eventually a tired looking yet still handsome Steve found his way to the table. When he came down that was when Molly started helping Clint make breakfast.

After Steve came Natasha, and the two held a small conversation, mostly consisting of how they slept. Following the bombshell, oddly enough came Dr Banner and Aida.

* * *

The gang was already sitting around the table, plates of french toast, bacon and other breakfast essentials by the time Tony came down in a Black Sabbath t-shirt and plaid pajama pants. Pepper looked like she had been up for a while, for she was already dressed as if she had be handling company business.

Molly just looked at Tony for a while. Obviously he had just woken up, his facial hair looked thicker than usual and his hair was disheveled. Her eyes wandered down to the arc reactor in his chest that glowed brightly through his shirt. "I don't know how you do it, Pepper..." She stated. The entire group looked over at her, curious.

"Do what, Molly?"

"Share a bed with Tony at night. Not saying he's not completely intolerable-"

"He is for the most part." Aida interrupted.

"Anyway, what I'm getting at is, the guy has a night light on his chest." Her statement earned a few giggled and chuckles from the table. Tony just wasn't listening, all he cared about right now was coffee.

Pepper smiled, "It's not too bad."

"If you're a two year old with an unreasonable case of scotophobia, that's the coolest thing in the world."

Aida grinned looking over at Molly after setting her mug of tea back on the table. "Oh! Do you think it's got a sleep mode, like when he goes to sleep it just kind of simmers down to a dull glow."

"That would be so cool!" Molly laughed, "See I was thinking more along the lines of he just taped come really thick fabric over it or something like my mom used to do with really bright digital clocks in her bedroom, but that's so much better!"

"Well I guess it's a good thing I have a PhD! Oh oh, or maybe he's even got it set up for mode lighting that way he doesn't worry about shining Pepper in the face when they're doin' what they do." Aida teased, a big grin still plastered across her face.

"Tony! Are you writing these down, these are great ideas!" Molly looked over at him with a large grin on his face. Tony wasn't only half listening, he sunk down into a chair at the table, holding his large mug of coffee on his chest close to his mouth, looking like a child. "Shh," he whispered, "Coffee." Pepper just shook her head.

* * *

Once breakfast was over Molly retreated to her room to change into clothes for the day. Seeing as how she and Steve would most likely just be staying at the tower for today she figured a pair of jeans and a t-shirt would be fine. Turning out of her room, a few books, binder, and board game in her hands, she bumped into something, or someone rather. Before Molly thought to gather the things she dropped, she looked forward to see what she had walked into only to be greeted by Steve's chest. "Eh," Molly could feel the heat rising to her cheeks as she looked up at Steve. "Uh, hi."

Smiling nervously, he scratched the back of his head. "Er, I was going to see if you wanted any help carrying anything? I guess it was good for me to come see, huh?" With her standing there in front of him he noticed who tiny she was without her heels on. In her heels she came up to collarbone, without them she probably hit the middle of his chest.

"Um," Molly looked down at the things she was carrying that now lay on the floor. She did have a quite a bit. She was glad that Axis and Allies stayed in it's box, she would've hated having to pick that game up. Laughing, Molly looked up at him again, "Yeah that was probably a good move. If could just take the books, that would be great." Steve responded with a nodded and a smile before gathering up the binder and the books from her pile. Before she had the opportunity to bend down and grab the game, Steve hand already handed it to her, to which she smiled and thanked him.

As they wandered down the hall Steve looked at the game the small redhead held in hands. "Axis and Allies... As in the Allied forces and the Axis powers...?" Molly could hear how confused, or maybe it was concerned, he was. She felt like she was going to have to get used to that tone in his voice.

"Something like that, yeah. Except, it's a board game, a strategy kind of thing. The Allies have to beat the Axis. Trade, purchase, invade, conquer, that kind of thing. I kind of thought we could play it later to along with your lesson. If you don't want to thats perfectly fine though!" It had suddenly crossed her mind that Steve might not have felt comfortable playing it because it might have reminded him of everything. Then again, it wasn't like Steve was going to relapse into some kind of nightmare-ish fit. Steve had told Molly about the nightmares he would have here and there, but that didn't necessarily mean it was going to occur during a board game.

Steve broke her out of her little mental melt down with a smile, "No, that's fine. It should be...interesting?"

"Alright, good!"

* * *

Molly tilted her head back and groaned, "Someone needs to be Germanyyyyyy."

Steve's lesson had gone relatively well. Most of it had been a review, the rest not so much. Molly had told him about things he may not have been so involved with, like the concentration camps and the SS. She touched on Anne Frank and other 'based on real life' books and stories. They ended with Hitler's suicide, but they would probably go over it more extensively tomorrow. He had been appalled by all of the things he hadn't been told about during the war. He got past that though, and now they were playing Molly's board game. For the Allies they had Steve as the United States, Molly as the United Kingdom and Natasha as the Soviet Union, two out of three seemed to fit, Molly had decided to be on the same side as Steve so she could help him figure things out. For the Axis Tony had decided to be Italy and Clint had taken Japan. No one wanted to be Germany.

Until Aida walked out of the elevator.

"YOU!" Tony pointed at Aida, who simply stopped and looked at him as she drank the last sip out of her juice box. "You're Germany."

"No." Aida kept walking.

"C'MON!"

Aida came out of the kitchen with another juice box, "Why? Bruce and I are-"

"Done having sex, come play this game. You're Germany." Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at the spot next to him.

"You're making the girl with the Jewish family be Germany, in a World War II game... Where's the problem here?" Aida completely brushed off Tony's previous comment, deciding it was better to ignore it. She did however try to play off that she was very offended by Tony's suggestion.

"You don't even practice Judaism, Addy." Molly pointed out, causing Aida's shoulders to drop.

"Since when are you Jewish, anyway Idaho?" Tony asked as Aida made her way over to the group.

"Um, my mother is Jewish, Tony."

"That explains her voice."

"You complain about your mom a lot..." Clint pointed out.

"Have you ever seen _The Nanny_? Y'know, that show where the nanny watches the rich guy's kids and she falls in love with him?" She responded, looking at him with a deadpan expression.

"Yeah, her voice was real nasally?"

"Yeah Clint, that's my mom-only not as nasally, about ten times worse, and just as excitable and prone to disappointment."

"Ouch."

"Mmhmm, welcome to my life. Now remind me how to play this game, since I've been dubbed dictator of Nazi Germany."

* * *

Molly laughed, scratching the back of her head as she walked down the hall to their rooms with Steve. "So maybe playing a board game about war and taking over things with Tony wasn't really the best idea." She told him, looking up at him with a smile. Their game had gone on for a good amount of time, and they had eventually starting played by their own rules. Things got a little out of hand.

Steve grinned, nodding his head a little in a way that said 'Yeah, you could be right', "Well hey, it wasn't entirely a bad idea. I mean, it provided good entertainment. I especially liked the party where Natasha defeated Clint and Japan. And then there was that point when Tony just started calling Aida 'Adolf Agar'." Normally Steve probably wouldn't have gotten a kick out of that, but he had knocked out Adolf Hitler over one hundred times.

Steve's joke made Molly laugh again, "Still, I'm guess I'm sorry it wasn't really helpful for you?" Steve looked her, an eyebrow quirked. Molly's smiled looked a little meek as compared to it's usual cheerful manner, "I just wanted to make learning all of these things more interesting to you, so I want you to enjoy yourself." He could understand what she meant. Steve could tell that Molly was worrying a bit about this whole 'reassimillate Captain America' thing. Molly was nervous because she wasn't really used to teaching people. She went to school for psychology, not education; he couldn't blame her for being a little uneasy about her teaching skills. Steve just smiled at her.

"I thought it was wonderful!" He told her, sounding maybe a little too enthusiastic in his opinion. Steve cleared his throat and smiled at Molly yet again, once more noticing all of the freckles that danced across the bridge of her nose and her cheek bones. "If you want, instead of trying to make things more interesting or simple for me, why don't you come up with something you would do to make it more fun for yourself if you were in this...situation? I guess that's what we'll call it."

Molly tilted her head much like Steve had seen animals do when they were curious or confused. He scratched the back of his head, "I'm sure I wouldn't mind anything you decide on. I mean, it's not like I really know much of anything about the things from this time, so I'm sure I'd be learning either way...?"

Oh gosh, she wasn't responding, she wasn't even looking at him anymore. Molly's gaze had shifted from himself and she was now making some strange face. "I-if not, everything is fine how it is ma'am, I mean, Miss Phil-" Steve put his hands to his face, sighing, "...I mean Molly."

Molly giggled, she placed a hand on Steve's arm to let him know everything was fine. "Steve, everything's okay," Steve let his hands drop from his flushed face, "tomorrow we'll do something different. Something that's not as involved maybe" She giggled softly before looking up at Steve. He looked like he was a combination of nervous and embarrassed. Smiling lightly, she just stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his torso in a small hug. "It's okay, Captain."

Steve Rogers could take out a Hydra base, he could defeat an alien army, there were a lot of things that Steve could go. When it came to girls though, he just froze. Right now he was standing in the hall in front of his room with a lovely dame with her arms around him, and he didn't know how to react. It took him a few moments until he finally returned the embrace.

After a few more seconds, Molly released Steve. She looked up at him with another one of those spine-tingling smiles and some kind of twinkle in those bright blue eyes of hers. For the probably the fifth time in the past ten minutes Steve could feel his face go darker than the ripest tomato, he even felt his breathing catch. So much for not getting as jittery around her as he did with other women.

"G'night Cap'n." The redhead told him, stepping away from him and heading toward her bedroom door.

"G-good night, Molly." Steve stammered, turning toward his door. He fumbled with the handle for moment which made Molly smile before she went into her room.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you so much to all of you who've added this to your story alerts! I can't believe I've been getting so many :D! This chapter was kind of a long one, but I hope you all enjoyed it! The next chapter I'll try to have up as soon as possible, and I'm going to try to focus it around more Molly/Steve interaction. Axis and Allies by the way is one of the most difficult games I have ever played, I don't think I've ever finished a game before.

**Amber-Jade James**Haha I'm glad you like that idea! I've been thinking about it a lot lately, I have a few ideas but I'm not entirely sure how to start it yet! Thank you again for the reviews!

**TARENasaraus** Oh wow! Thank you! I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying the story so far :)!

**Rittanicus** Thank you so much!

**MrS-mOOny86 **Thanks! I've been having a lot of ideas for this as of late. so I'm just trying to figure out how to put them together so that they flow nicely. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

Steve awoke to the sound of someone knocking on his door the next morning. With a small groan, the soldier rolled out of bed in just a pair of pajama pants. He was greeted by a very awake, spunky looking redhead. She must've been wearing her heels today, he wasn't fully awake to realize, but he had noticed she was taller. After letting a soft yawn escape his lips, Steve rubbed his eyes. "Good morning, Molly..." He greeted softly. When he cracked one of his open, still rubbing the other, he noticed a light blush across her cheek. Though that quickly vanished when that spunky glimmer came back into her eyes as she pressed her hands to her hips.

"Get dressed, soldier. We're going on an adventure." Molly's words earned a chuckle from him, he straightened up in a mock salute, causing her giggle.

"Yes, ma'am." Steve had been about to retreat back into his room before he looked to her again, actually noticing her outfit this time. "Um," He began. Molly had been wearing a sleeveless white dress with a blue floral pattern, reminiscent of those he had seen women wear during his time. Steve had assumed right, Molly was wearing her heels today, white ones. Apparently her toes were painted the same blue/silver combination as her nails, because he could see a few of them today. She accessorized with the same strange bracelet and pearl earrings she wore when they had met. "How should I dress for this 'adventure'?" With Molly dressed to the nines and all, he wasn't entirely sure.

The young redhead blinked and glanced down at her outfit, "Oh!" She waved a hand at him, "You can wear whatever you want. I just like wearing dresses" Steve nodded in response. Molly clapped her hands together once, "Alright! You get dressed then, just come get me in my room when you're done and we'll head out!" With that, Molly turned to head back to her room, revealing the back of her dress to the soldier. So only the front was from the 40s, on the back of the dress the fabric had been knotted together in a few places, showing off spots of Molly's bare porcelain skin back. With a scratch of his head, Steve closed the door to his room and got changed for their adventure.

* * *

Once dressed, a pale blue plaid shirt buttoned over a white t-shirt and a pair of khakis, Cap made his way over to Molly's open room with his brown leather jacket in hand. He knocked on the doorway before peaking in, finding Molly sitting on her bed talking on her iPhone. Tony had got him one of those things but he had absolutely no idea how to work it entirely. He could make phone calls, that was all he needed. Hearing Steve's knock, Molly looked over with a smile and held up one finger to let him know she was going to be a minute.

"No I haven't gotten it yet, Jennie. I'll check at the front desk to see if I've gotten anything in the mail, though!" Molly seemed so pleasant every time she was talking to anyone, even over the phone. Steve was starting to wonder if she was ever anything other than happy. Well, actually she was, he remembered the day Molly got there and how Aida made her a bit upset commenting on her new line of work with SHIELD. That was the only time he had seen her cheerful demeanor falter.

"Alright, seastar!...Yeah, I'll text you if I got anything," Steve smiled as she laughed at whoever she was talking to, "Love you too, bye." Molly hung up, placing her iPhone in her small bag that was printed to look like an envelope and rose from her bed to make her way out of her room with the soldier.

"Sorry about that, my sister called." She told him with a smile as they made their way toward the elevator, "She wanted to know if I got something in the mail from her."

Steve smiled, shaking his head, "Oh no, it's quite alright, I understand. Family business is important."

When they reached the main floor of the building, Molly made her way over to the front of desk of the building to ask about her mail. Steve had a spot beside her but simply looked around the floor, watching people wander in and out of the building. One of them being Aida, though something was different today. She had a small child with her, maybe some where in eight or ten year old age range.

Now, it wasn't that Steve didn't like Aida. He really did, she was a nice girl. She was just more...blunt than Steve was used to from a gal? Aida was sort of like a combination between Tony and Molly, except from what he knew, Aida wasn't really a serial dater or playboy...playgirl? Either way, Aida was just able to keep up with Tony hit for hit whenever they went toe to toe in an argument. She had a sharp tongue that she wasn't afraid to use and could definitely swear like a sailor. Not to mention she had a relatively short fuse that Tony loved to ignite. Over all, Aida definitely knew how to supply entertainment without really trying. The child was new though. He had the same green dominated hazel eyes that Aida had, and a face full of freckles. The only difference between the two had been the boy's honey brown hair, where as Aida's was a dark auburn. As they approached, Steve watched the boy's eyes light up as he ran over to Molly, tugging on the skirt to her dress, Molly's response was a bright smile and kindly asking him to wait a second.

"Morning, Steve!" Aida greeted, a smile on her face. Steve never would've taken her for a morning person. He responded with a smile and a nod.

"Good Morning, Dr. Agar."

Aida just shook her head, smiling, "Call me Aida, Steve, it's fine." She looked over to see Molly still busy with the man at the front desk while she rested a hand on the small boy's head and pulled Steve a few steps away, looking up at him apologetically. "I'm really sorry about how I reacted towards Molly's job with you the other day. It's really nothing against you, I don't think there's anyone better to help you out, I just worry about her sometimes."

The soldier smiled at her, "It's alright, Aida. I get it," Steve shrugged, "You've known her for a good amount of time, friends look out for each other." In a way, their relationship sort of reminded him of the relationship Steve had with Bucky. They looked out for each other, always had each others back. Bucky didn't want Steve enlisting because he didn't want him to get himself hurt. Aida was doing the same thing to Molly.

Aida smiled at him again, she looked to Molly then back to the man before her, "You look out for her, okay?" That was all she was asking of him. With a faint color to his cheeks, Steve nodded with a small smile.

"Oh!" Molly must've taken care of whatever it was with the receptionist, because she was now hugging the small boy beside her, "You've gotten so big since I saw you last!"

Seeing the confusion on Steve's as he looked toward Molly hugging the small fellow, Aida answered his unspoken question. "He's my little brother." Steve nodded. "Hey Avery, you wanna meet someone?" Hearing his name the small boy padded over to his sister, bringing Molly over by the end of her dress. Aida leaned down, whispering something into the boy's ear.

"Whoa!" The little boy exclaimed, looking up at Steve with so much delight and excitement radiating from his small body that Steve thought he was going to explode. "You're so cool! Looklooklook!" His words were jumbled together as he spun around to show off his backpack. What they saw caused Molly to giggle softly to herself. She nudged Steve lightly with her elbow. "Looks like you have a fan."

Steve smiled as he looked at the kid's backpack. Avery had a child-sized version of his Captain America shield attached to his backpack, he also had a keychain that resembled that of Thor's mighty Mjölnir. It wasn't until now that Steve noticed the Hulk action figure that the boy was holding. Avery turned around again, looking up at Molly with the same bright eyes, "Is Captain America your boyfriend?" His innocent question caused both Steve and Molly turn different shades of red and pink.

"U-uh, um..." Was all Steve could stammer out. Molly on the other hand couldn't do much of anything, she just kind of stood there staring at the young boy with her lips parted lightly in an attempt to answer him. Finally she was able to just shake her head, smiling at the boy, "Sorry Avery, but Captain America isn't my boyfriend." She told him, face still flushed.

The boy pouted. "That's too bad. He should be. You're a nice, pretty lady." He let out a quick sigh and got over it. Avery gave the pair a toothy smile, to which Steve noticed he was actually missing one of his top front teeth. "I'm gonna go get my sister to date the Hulk! I'll see you guys later!" Those were Avery's final words before he began walking over to the elevator, leaving his older sister standing in front of the Captain and his teacher with a hand on her face.

Once passed her moment, Aida looked over to Molly, "Did you get Jen's save the date or whatever in the mail yet?"

Molly nodded and held up the envelope in her hand, "Yeah, I just got it."

"It's cute." She looked over to her brother, who was hopelessly trying to reach the button to the elevator, and let out a sigh, "Okay, I'll see you guys. Have fun doing whatever. You," she pointed at Molly, "call me tonight, okay? We need girl talk, like, big time." Aida's words caused Molly to giggle and she just responded with a nod. Aida smiled at the two and dismissed herself with a wave.

* * *

Molly was taking Steve to the American Museum of Natural History. Molly was a sucker for museums, you get her in one and if there was something she knew about she wouldn't stop talking about it. It didn't matter what kind of museum it was. History, art, science, Molly got excited. Well, no one could get more excited about a science museum than Aida, but that was because she was a science girl. Anyway, after Steve's suggestion the previous night, Molly remembered the flags hanging from lamp posts and on buildings as she and Nick Fury drove through the city to get to Stark Tower. The museum was currently borrowing an exhibit from the Smithsonian, their _The Price of Freedom: Americans at War_ exhibit. That meant there was going to be a brief history of every war, starting at the French and Indian War extending to the wars involving Iraq and Afghanistan. All of those wars, also meant Molly was going to bounce of the walls with excitement as she told Steve about everything. At the same time, this could also be a bad thing. Steve was learning about conflicts he wasn't entirely ready to learn about without knowing about things that had lead up them. Vietnam was going to be a rough one to explain, but that one also brought up a lot of interesting texts and side facts Molly could through in. Okay, so not all of them were uplifting facts, they were actually pretty depressing...but they would get over that. Hopefully.

Their trip to the museum was nice, they shared a little chit chat back and forth, but it was mostly just a nice walk. They had taken a cab to Central Park and had decided to walk through there to get to it. It was a nice day out, so Molly figured that they might as well enjoy the weather.

Molly she slid her arm through the slot that had been created between Steve's arm and torso created to latch herself on for some kind of support as she walked beside him. "Now, I'm gonna have to warn you of two things." She told him, patting his arm lightly. Steve chuckled, "All right, let me hear it."

"One," Molly held up one finger, "I'm going to turn into a girl at a candy store once step in this museum. If you want me to shut up, just let me know."

Again, Steve laughed, smiling as he nodded, "Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Honestly, as the idea ran through his mind, he kind of thought that he would be okay with her rambling on and on. If Molly wasn't exaggerating though, he could probably imagine changing his mind. Maybe.

"Two," A second finger was added, "We're going to going over the other wars we haven't touched on. You're not going to like them. Especially Vietnam. Lots of protests, lots of unhappy citizens, lots and lots of-what may have been-unnecessary bloodshed.

After a moment Steve responded with a nod, "Alright. That's fine. If things just get to be too much to handle we'll just move on to another exhibit. How's that sound?" Molly smiled and agreed with him. She was kind of amazed at how quick Steve was to come up with alternatives for them. He had done so last night and he was doing so now. She supposed that had been part of the whole super serum thing. The whole point of it was to make him a super soldier. She had read Steve's file. With the body, came the mind - of course he was quick on his feet.

When they got into the museum, Molly grabbed a map and began walking through with the super soldier by her side. The exhibit was great - well, to Molly. Molly had seen the exhibit at the Smithsonian, so she knew what to expect, Steve on the other hand was fascinated by the museum as a whole. He would have stood and marveled at the giant T-Rex in the lobby for quite some time if Molly hadn't pulled him away, promising that they would explore the rest of the museum after his 'lesson'. They made their way to the exhibit, consisted of artifacts like guns, uniforms, various posters and photographs. Though it had photographs and other such objects that fascinated Steve from previous wars from before Steve's time, Molly managed to keep a lid on her excitement until they reached WWII.

She would speak about the weapons and vehicles as if she knew everything about them. Steve was a man, not to mention he was involved in the war, and he didn't even know how fire of information about the vehicles they used. She knew more about the Jeeps they had used than any of the other vehicles though. Come to find out, basically everyone in Molly's immediate family owned a Jeep. Her parents and her sister - whom at the mention of, Steve remembered the whole conversation of her 'Save the Date' popped into his mind, something he was going to have to remember to ask about later - both had four-door Jeep Wranglers, whereas as she and her brother had the standard two-door. Molly was also sure to point out that her Jeep was a stick shift, a skill that she was very proud to have. Apparently it was a big deal if a girl could drive a manual car. She didn't have it with her because she hated driving in the city.

They went over everything in the exhibit. Steve was almost surprised to learn that Molly had relatives involved in almost very conflicts. You can Colonel Phillips in WWII, her grandfather in the Korean War, and then her Uncle(the one with PTSD, as she reminded) and her father had been involved in the Vietnam War. According to Molly though, her father missed the rough of it for he had enlisted toward the end when the boys were on their way home. She also had cousins who went over to Iraq and Afghanistan, but she had mentioned that her siblings weren't enlisted at the time.

"Would you have enlisted?" Steve asked, rather suddenly in Molly's opinion. She looked at him, and she could tell that he was a little concerned. In response, Molly shook her head 'no' lightly.

"Probably not..." She told him, her voice dropping a bit. She felt a little uncomfortable telling him no. Here she was, talking to the man that had tried five times to get himself into the Army, and telling him that she probably wouldn't have even bothered trying to enlist.

Steve's shoulders dropped a little and he nodded. He wasn't disappointed, he was actually kind of relieved. If Molly had joined the military, he never would've met her and would've gotten someone completely different to be his counselor. Brushing the thought of Molly being replaced to the side, Steve asked her another question out of pure curiosity. "Why not?"

Molly did that thing Steve had noticed, when she looked either up or down and made a face, a face where she scrunched up her nose and lips lightly. Last night he thought it was because he said something stupid, but the more he watched her he realized she was just thinking. Molly wasn't really thinking about her answer, but more or less how to say it. The redhead shrugged, looking back to Steve. "They wouldn't have really given me much of a chance," she told him, "I have asthma, as soon as they saw that they would've rejected me."

Steve nodded again, he knew exactly what that felt like. Still, he was very happy she wasn't involved in any war or military activity. Just thought of her getting hurt or injured as he had seen so many good men do, it rattled him a little. Besides, much like he felt Peggy did, she had no reason to be in the military. She was a bright, beautiful young woman who had so much she could do with her life. Yet here she was, spending her days with a 92 year old science project. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered what she was doing with him. Steve shook the thought and looked to where Molly was, finding that she was no long by his side.

* * *

Molly had back tracked a little, back to WWII. She was standing in front of one of the Captain America 'Buy War Bonds' posters. With it were the Captain America training cards, the comic they released with Steve knocking out Hitler on the cover, newspaper articles, and tons of photographs. Pictures of Steve while he was looking at maps, planning attacks on HYDRA bases with Bucky and the rest of the infantry. There had been pictures with Howard Stark, the Colonel, and Peggy Carter. She was surprised that Steve hadn't asked about her, but she wasn't going to be the one to bring it up. One picture in particular however caught her attention. It was Steve before the serum, about to go through his procedure looking adorably nervous, shaking the hand of the Dr. Erskine. A small smile grew on her face.

"I remember when they took that..." Steve told her, his voice soft. Molly looked up at him, a little startled since he hadn't been there a moment ago. She smiled as he continued. "Dr. Erskine told them that it wasn't a good time. That was the only picture they took during the whole thing."

Molly smiled, leaning on his arm only slightly as if not to put her weight against him. "This is actually new, I think. Last time I saw this exhibit when it was at the Smithsonian this wasn't here." She told him. A short moment of silence passed before she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "You were hero even while you were on ice."

Steve looked down at her, she had brought him out of some form of daze with her words. "I'm sorry, what?"

Molly's gaze hadn't shifted from the photograph of Pre-serum Steve, "You were a hero even when you weren't around. My pappy," her face contorted, "that's what I call my grandfather, but anyway. My pappy was a pretty small guy growing up, sorta like you. All his friends called him Mickey, because he was small like Mickey Mouse. I thought it was kind of silly when he told me, but I guess that was the best people could come up with. Anyway - the Colonel, because great great grandpa is a mouth full, told him about you. The scrawny kid from Brooklyn who became the world's first hero who risked his life to save the world." Steve watched Molly as she spoke, a smile growing on her face, "You became the icon to a scrawny little kid from Boston, who eventually became this big strong guy and joined the Air Force."

"Wow..." So people had still cared about Captain America, even after he went on ice. Sure, the Colonel had brought him up, but people still looked up to Steve even when he wasn't around.

"Of course Pappy didn't have the super serum. He went through a late growth spurt and now he's around six feet, I'm not sure. I don't really know how tall he is, he's taller than me, but thats not really too difficult. Unless I'm wearing heels then we might be-" Her banter ceased when she noticed Steve trying not to laugh, a smile on his face as he held back. Molly's eyebrows knit together as she looked at Steve with confusion, "What? What happened?"

Steve let out a small chuckle, "Nothing, just you." Molly chin lowered slightly and she raised an eyebrow, giving him a questioning look. Stammering, Steve continued, "It-It's just - you were rambling, and I didn't want to stop you." He couldn't help but look down cover his mouth and he let out another laugh. Biting his lip as he looked back up her, he flashed a smile. "I'm sorry. It was kinda neat to watch you go on and on. It was sweet." He watched as Molly blushed, another smile making its way to his lips.

Molly let out a breath, turning and beginning to walk away, "C'mon, soldier, we've got the rest of a museum to look at." She told him. She wasn't angry. She was just trying to hide how flustered his statement had made her.

* * *

After their trip to the museum, they had stopped at a diner to have dinner for the evening. Earlier Steve had apologized for he said, because the way she walked off he thought she made her angry. Apparently everything had been fine though, because she had been back to her regular self after they left that part of the museum. Overall they had a great time, Steve enjoyed watching Molly beam whenever she was telling him about the history of things.

As they sat there waiting for their food Molly sat her small envelope looking bag on the table and pulled the piece of mail she had received earlier, leaving the bag open on a table. Steve could see her phone, a small yellow tube that he assumed was whatever the sparkly minty smelling stuff she put on her lips, and a red metallic case that he had assumed was her wallet. He watched as Molly opened the envelope.

"What's a 'save the date'?" He asked, propping his elbow on the table and resting his head against his hand.

"It's something that couples send out to let people the date of their wedding, allowing them to 'save the date' do they can attend." She answered, pulling whatever it was out of the white, shimmery envelope. "My sister is getting married, but Aida doesn't really know what she's talking about. This is my sister's wedding invitation. In Aida's head wedding invitations and save the dates are all the same." She added, looking at the contents in her hands. Steve just nodded, which he was beginning to realize he did a lot of around her, and just watched as she read everything. The card she held in her hands was shaped like a large ticket that you would get a carnival, there was another, smaller ticket shaped card she left on the table that read 'RSVP'. Steve assumed that she had to mail these back to her sister. Smiling, Molly handed the card to Steve. "Wanna look?"

"Sure." He replied, taking the card from her. The card read _Join us in an evening of festivities with family and friends gather to celebrate the marriage of Jenna Lee Phillips and Jason Warren Pratt on July 30th 2012! The wedding will be kindly held at the home of Jack and Louise Phillips in Boston, Massachusetts! _The rest of the invitation gave the address of the locations. Steve smiled as he handed it back to Molly.

"Wow, that's pretty close! What, three months?"

Molly laughed, "Yeah, just about."

"Are you gonna go?" Steve immediately regretted his question. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course you're going, it's your sister's wedding." Molly laughed again.

"Well yeah, that and I'm the Maid of Honor, I have to go."

"What's a maid of honor?"

Molly shrugged, "I'm basically just helping my sister stay sane. I'm going to have to go home about a week or two before the wedding though, just to help her settle things and do bachelorette party things." Steve blinked.

"So you'll be gone for two weeks..?" Suddenly he felt a little pang of what might have been sadness hit him. She'd be gone for two weeks, he'd known her for less than a week and he already getting upset of the fact that she would be gone for a while. What was this?

"About that, yeah." She nodded, "I still need a date though, my grandma isn't gonna let me hear the end of it if I go stag." Molly smiled, "Would you be interested in coming to Boston for a while, Captain Rogers?" Steve looked at her, it didn't seem like her offer sunk in yet. "There's a lot of museums in the area, and I'm sure my family would love to meet the man the Colonel never shut up about."

With a small laugh Steve smiled, "Yeah, sure. I think I'd like that."

Molly smiled brightly, clearly pleased. "Good! It's a date."

Steve's smile remained as the waitress brought their food. The pair sat and made conversation as they ate, eventually finishing their meal and returning to Stark Tower for the night.

* * *

Upon arriving at their home, Molly and Steve exchanged good nights before Molly retreated to her bedroom for the night. She kicked off her heels and removed her dress before hopping in the shower and plopping herself on her bed. The young redhead removed her phone from her clutch purse and proceeded to call her best friend.

"Took you long enough." Aida answered, "Did he at least buy you dinner first?" She teased. Molly could hear her grinning on the other line.

Molly let out an annoyed groan, flopping her head back against a pillow. "You're worse than Tony!"

"Hey. No. Wrong. I'm a lot more attractive than he is." Aida argued. Molly could hear what sounded like moving water in the background.

"Are you taking a bath?" She questioned, the skepticism noticeable in her voice.

"Yeah, I am, got a problem?" Aida retorted, though Molly could hear the playful tone in her voice. Aida sighed, "You'd want to take a long bath too if you had to deal with a seven year old and Tony Stark when he's really bored."

Molly giggled, "Was Avery that bad?"

"Oh no, he was good for the most part. He was a little bummed when he noticed Bruce wasn't Hulked out or anything. The problems rolled in when Tony made him aware that you had make Bruce angry in order to meet the Hulk."

"Oh good grief, that sounds terrible." Molly rubbed her temple with her free hand, she could imagine Avery trying his best to irritate Bruce so he could meet the Hulk. "He and Bruce got along though?"

"Oh yeah, they got along great. Avery asked Bruce if he wanted to come to his birthday party-"

"AW! That's adorable!" Molly interjected.

"And then marry his sister."

Molly erupted with laughter. On the other line, Aida just nodded and listened to Molly laugh. Eventually she calmed down, "What did Bruce do?"

"Bruce didn't do anything! He just looked at me and went back to work. His response was basically something along the lines of thats not happening."

"What did he say?"

"It was something like 'I think it's a little too soon for that, kiddo.' or something like that."

Molly grinned, Aida could think that was Bruce denying her all she wanted. "So what exactly is going on between you and Bruce?"

"Basically I think he's an incredible hunk," she answered, making a play at the title of Incredible Hulk, "He's a super genius and he's attractive, AND he's really nice. What's not to like about him? Hold on, I'm gonna get out of the tub." Molly didn't have a chance to respond, Aida had already set her phone down else where and stepped out of her bath, taking a moment to dry off. "Okay, I'm back." She started, "Now, how 'bout you? Whats going on with you and the Cap?"

Molly blushed, "Nothing!" She could practically hear Aida roll her eyes as she snorted.

"Yeah, okay, because thats the complete truth. Did you see yourselves this morning? The two of you looked like you came straight out of a catalogue showing happy couples. Not to mention how both of you reacted when Avery asked if you were dating Steve." Aida told her, "At least admit it. You're attracted to Captain America."

"Fine, I am." Molly sighed, "I asked him to come Jenna's wedding." Aida squealed on the other end, absolutely thrilled for her friend. They're conversation continued, going else where.

Steve was a great guy. Molly liked watching him get flustered, and he listened to every little thing she had to say. Not to mention he was brave, loyal and wanted nothing more than save the little guy. Steve Rogers had nothing but admirable qualities and Molly liked that. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't attracted to him, the man was gorgeous. Greek gods wished they had that physique. The body though. That was what the serum improved. The serum he had been injected with magnified all of his good attributes, not to mention gave him the physical build, stamina, etc. to make him a good soldier. The body was what made him Captain America, but his personality was all his own. Thinking back to Aida's remark, 'Admit it, you're attracted to Captain America', Molly should have told her she was attracted to Steve Rogers.

* * *

Steve had showered and settled in bed, folding his arms behind his head with a grin. Memories of the day he shared with the redhead playing in mind. Eventually, Molly's words sounding off in his head. Sure, it was a few months away, but the man couldn't help but be a little excited.

_It's a date._

* * *

**A/N: **Wow! Haha, I'm so glad Axis and Allies got such a positive response! Oh, fun fact: the whole thing with Molly's grandpa, is sorta loosely based on my own grandpa. He used to tell me was Captain America all the time when I was little. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed for all of their feedback, I really appreciate it! If you have any ideas or suggestions as to things that Molly/Steve or the entire group of Avengers could do(basically anything you might like to see happen) feel free to drop a review and tell me about what you think :D! I'll take all of your suggestions into consideration :)

Also, I will be continuing another story that will focus around Aida and Bruce. They'll be in the same universe obviously so they will have some overlapping moments, but the things I include in this story I may just briefly go over unless it's essential to Aida's character. Other events like dinner and such, will just focus more on Aida and Bruce rather than Steve and Molly. Hopefully, I'll have that story up later tonight if you're at all interested :)

Here's Molly's outfit for the museum trip. Just periods!

www dot polyvore dot com/first_many/set?id=52518408

Thanks again everyone!


	6. Chapter 6

A few weeks had passed since Steve and Molly went to the museum. They had grown more comfortable around each other. Molly had gotten a little more silly while she was with him, becoming more playful and making jokes with him. Aida had mentioned something about those being her 'true colors' - she was a sweet girl, which he had already known, but she liked to make jokes and could be one of the guys every so often while still managing to be feminine the entire time. He hadn't actually seen her whole 'one of the guys' bit, but he was sure it would've come out eventually.

Their lessons were going really well. They were taking things year by year, they would go to another floor and watch older movies and Molly would help Steve figure out his iPhone. One day they had even gone out and gotten Steve a few new clothes, that way he wasn't wearing khakis all the time.

Usually, Molly was the first one to wake up between the two of them. Before most of the Avengers, actually. Today Steve was downstairs and had eaten breakfast before she was even awake yet. Concerned, Steve went back upstairs and knocked on her door. "Molly?" He called, knocking again. After hearing no response, Steve cautiously made his way into Molly's room, relieved to find that she was still asleep and that he hadn't walked in on her changing or anything. Steve smiled a bit. He never seen Molly asleep before, but she looked really cute. He wasn't sure if he should call it peaceful or what.

Clad in her usual loose t-shirt/shorts bedtime combo, Molly had been on her side though leaning more toward being on her stomach. Her legs tangled in the sheets, her arms wrapped around a pillow that she had half of her face buried into. Copper hair was slightly tousled about her fair freckled face. Steve could see her lush eyelashes resting against her cheeks, her pale pink lips parted slightly. Molly's lips weren't like Pepper's, whose were thin, or Natasha's, whose were round and plump. Molly's top lip was a tad thinner and protruded a bit more than her pouty bottom one. A soft, high pitched sigh emitted from her lips as she shifted on her back. Steve felt the heat rise to his cheeks as Molly stretched her arms above her head, arching her back ever so slightly. After releasing a soft 'hm' sound, Molly rolled to her other side proceeding to curl herself into a small ball. The blonde man shook his head, reminding himself that he was here to wake her up.

Sitting her the edge of her bed softly, careful not to disturb her at first, he reached over and shook her shoulder lightly. Earning no response from her, he shook her a little rougher this time, "Molly." He said softly. A soft whimper came from her as she buried face into a pillow, causing Steve to chuckle. "C'mon, Molly, it's time to wake up," He watched her shake her head into the pillow.

"Nooo." She whined softly, Steve almost barely heard her since she was muffled.

"You can't sleep all day."

Molly lifted her head, eyes closed still, "Watch me." She retorted, dropping her face back into the pillow. Though Steve didn't think the offer sounded too bad, he just laughed and shook her again.

"C'mon, Moll, outta bed." He sounded a little more stern this time.

"Make me!" Was Molly's muffled response. Steve sat there, thought about for a minute before a mischievous grin rose to his face. He shrugged, "Your choice."

"What?" Molly was about to lift her head to see what was about to happen when Steve had lifted her up from her bed, hoisting her over his shoulder and heading toward the door. She squealed, or shrieked, either way she was laughing all the same.

"Steve!" No answer. "Steve! Put me down!" Molly couldn't help but laugh as Steve carried her, he stopped at her door. She could hear the grin in his words, even though she couldn't see it since she was over her his shoulder.

"What do you say?"

"Please! _Please_ put me down, Steve!" With that, Steve turned around and in one swift motion took Molly off of his shoulder, but he didn't put her down. He had his arm hooked underneath of her knees, his hand holding the leg closest to him just above the knee on her smooth skin. The opposite hand placed firmly against the middle of her back supporting her as he held her at this strange dip like angle.

"Good morning, Miss Phillips." He greeted, that damn smile that made her melt plastered on his face as he gazed down at her. At least she was definitely awake now.

His quick actions had caused her squeak, Molly had one hand holding on to his bicep just before his elbow. Her other arm had maneuvered itself around Steve's waist, her hand gasping at his shirt in fear that she was going to fall. Slightly out of breath and blushing now due how startled she was, Molly simply starred up at Steve with big blue eyes until she mustered up a small smile before letting out a breathy reply. "Good morning to you too, Captain."

He held her there a moment and they stared at one another, smiles on their faces until Steve realized what he was doing and quickly placed her back on to feet. He rubbed the back of his head and looked down to his feet in an attempt to hide the red in his face. "S-sorry about that."

Molly shook her head quickly, waving her hands, "No no it's okay! You didn't do anything wrong!" She exclaimed, her cheeks on fire.

The stood there in silence. Steve having one hand latched behind his neck as he tried avoiding looking at her. Molly played with the ends of her hair that she twisted around her shoulder out of nervous habit, biting a corner of her bottom lip. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes as she looked up at him, coincidentally meeting his bright blue eyes.

"Meet you in the gym in fifteen?" She asked, her voice soft.

Steve just nodded quickly, still nervous. "Yeah, I'll meet you there." As he was about to walk out of the door he looked back at Molly and opened his mouth to say something, but instead he shook his head and waved at her, a weak smile, "I'll see you soon." With that he closed her door behind him. Molly collapsed onto her bed and held one of her pillows over her face, letting out a loud squeal.

* * *

After getting changed into her pair of Villanova University sport shorts and a grey tank top, Molly made her way down to the labs to talk to Aida before going to meet Steve in the gym. Before she even entered the room she could hear Aida laughing.

"I'm sorry, that was mean." Aida was looking over at Bruce, a smile on her face. Bruce simply shook his head and smiled as he worked on whatever it was he was doing.

"You're having way too much fun making fun of me."

"I'm not so sure I'd call it 'making fun of you' it's more or less poking fun at you. At least I'm not poking you with pointy objects." Aida finally looked over at the door and smiled enthusiastically. "Oh hey Molly!" Bruce looked over and greeted Molly with a small nod and wave, "Hello Molly."

Molly smiled, "Hey guys!" Bruce and Aida seemed to work really well together, it was actually kind of sweet. "Hey Bruce, do you mind if I borrow Aida for a bit?" She asked.

Bruce looked over at Aida and back to Molly with a some what concerned expression, "I don't know, if she leaves the room might I pass out due to lack of mental stimulation." Molly giggled.

"That was a bad joke, Bruce."

"You just sat back and made jokes, parodies, and puns about my condition for at least fifteen minutes. Me telling Molly about how bored I'm going to be in your absence is a bad joke?" He asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow with an amused look on his face. Aida just approached him and placed her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes as she leaned up a bit toward the scientist's face. She was maybe 4 or 5 inches shorter than Bruce, not the almost foot difference between Molly and Steve.

"That's different," She said, poking a finger into his chest, a small smirk on her lips, "I'm actually funny."

Molly just smiled as she sat back and watched the two communicate. Molly never would've expected Aida to be interested in Bruce. She knew Aida liked smart guys, but they were never usually like Bruce. They were loud, they were risk takers, more often than not they were athletic - they were guys like Molly's brother or sometimes even Tony. Bruce was different - he was calm, cautious, not very athletic but obviously in shape. He had a dry sense of humor that could keep up with Aida's sarcasm.

Bruce rolled his eyes, a small smile on his face, he turned Aida around and lightly shoved her in Molly's direction, "Here Molly, you can have her." Molly smiled and thanked him, taking Aida out into the hall.

"What's up, buttercup?" Aida asked, looking at Molly's outfit, "What's with the work out gear?"

"I'm gonna be in the gym with Steve," Molly sighed, "Okay, so, I have something to tell you about Steve." Aida nodded, listening as Molly continued to tell her about the events occurring that morning.

"That's pretty damn adorable." Aida said, smiling.

"I don't know what to do, Addy!" Molly slid her hands down her face, "I really like Steve, but I feel like Fury's gonna get so pissed off if anything happens between us."

"How's Fury even gonna find out?"

"I don't know!"

Aida sighed at Molly's frustration and placed her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Look Moll, I honestly don't know what to tell you. Fury hasn't seemed to do anything about the whole Clint and Natasha thing, unless he hasn't noticed, but I wouldn't worry about it. If they're fine, you and Steve are fine."

"Natasha is a master assassin and a spy," Molly simply looked at Aida with border line puppy dog eyes, "She's trained to keep secrets."

Aida rolled her eyes as she released Molly's shoulders, only to punch her lightly in one of them before smiling at her. "Stop acting like a baby. Steve's crazy about you, even an idiot could notice." Molly smiled lightly before Aida continued, "Now, here's a question - have you told him?"

Molly's smile dropped and she furrowed her brows lightly, "About what?"

"You know what." Molly looked down to her feet slightly and Aida knew the answer, causing her to throw her hands up. "Molly! You have to tell him!"

"What? What do I tell him Aida? He hasn't asked!"

Aida sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "The man deserves to know, Molly."

With an exasperated sigh, Molly covered her face again, "I'll tell him while we're in the gym!"

"Good!" Aida playfully shoved Molly toward the elevator, "Now go get some!" Before Molly had a chance to protest or yell, Aida had retreated back into the lab.

"So what was that all about?" Bruce asked, not looking up from his project. Aida sighed and plopped herself down in a swivel chair, massaging her temples.

"Well, dear ole Molly has found herself in a little dilemma."

"About Cap? Is everything okay?"

"Well, surely enough she's falling for him."

"Oh."

"Yeah, but she's worrying too much about Fury so I told her to go for it."

Bruce chuckled, walking up behind her and resting his hands on her shoulders, "You're really not too fond of him are you?" Aida tilted her head back to look up at Bruce with a large grin on her face.

"Not one bit."

* * *

After their trip to the museum, Steve had started training Molly in 'self defense', as they were calling it. Really he was just teaching her how to box and other methods of fighting incase there were ever a situation where Steve, or anyone else for that matter, wasn't around and she needed to fight for herself. It evened out in their opinion.

Steve stepped back from Molly, letting her gather her breath for a moment. "So. you're telling me that while men were away at war during my time, they had women playing baseball?"

Molly propped herself up against of the corner poles in the boxing ring set up in Steve's gym. She nodded, "Uh-huh," Molly took a drink from her water bottle before further answering his question, "Yeah, there's a movie called _A League of Their Own_. I love it, it's probably one of my favorite movies. It's sorta based on how the All-American Girls Pro Baseball League got started. It's not the first time women played baseball - it was actually happening before that, there were company teams and stuff - but that was the first time women were actually sought out to do so."

Steve nodded, listening intently as she explained everything to him. "I just can't believe I didn't here about that," He told her, taking the punching mitts off his hands and tossing them to the side somewhere in the ring.

Molly shrugged, "You were too preoccupied with, well, everything going on at the time." She took another drink, pointing at him with the index finger on the hand she had her bottle in as she swallowed. "Which leads me to asking you one question," Steve looked up at her from taking the tape off of his hands and Molly took a deep breath, "Why haven't you asked me about Peggy Carter?"

Steve's expression went solemn. Looking down, he shrugged, continuing to unwrap his hands. "I was on ice for 70 years, Molly. I would've thought Colonel Phillips died long before you were born if you hadn't told me otherwise. I've been under the impression that everyone I had known was gone ever since I woke up, I've coped with that." He looked up at her, the kindness in eyes replaced by a combination of anger and sadness that made Molly feel terrible. "Are you going to try tell me that Peggy is still alive?"

Molly shook her head, she probably looked like a child who was being punished by their parent. "No. Peggy passed away a few months before they uncovered you," she looked down and bit her lip.

She listened to him take a deep breath. "Did she ever..." He trailed off, but Molly knew what he was asking. She just looked at him with big, sad, blue eyes.

"Get married? Yes. She got married a few years after the war ended. She went back to England, where she got married and raised a daughter. When I was little, this was before the Colonel passed, she moved to my area. She only brought her husband and her grandson. Her daughter and her husband died in a car accident and instead of moving to another town, she brought her family where she knew her grandson would be surrounded by good people, good people that could tell her grandson about you."

Steve looked at her, "So you knew Peggy?"

Molly nodded, "She was one of the nicest women I've ever met. She would take care of me as if I were her own." She saw the sadness flash in Steve's eyes.

Steve took another breath and ran his hands through his hair, "And her grandson?"

"His name is Carter Ferris. Peggy's daughter liked Carter as a name and wanted to keep 'Carter' alive somehow, so that's how he ended up with that. He's a year older than I am. He appreciates you as a hero, but as far as he's concerned you're just the man that his grandfather wished he could've been for Peggy." Molly grew up with Carter, they were good friends, they had a history together. Carter knew how Peggy felt about Steve, and he could never get over the fact that his grandfather felt like he had to be something more just to make her happy. Molly looked at Steve, her heartbreaking as the she let the following words fall out of her mouth, "Peggy never stopped loving you, Steve." Her voice was soft, a borderline whisper, but he heard her.

Steve stood there for minute, not saying a word, just looking at the ground. "Would you mind leaving me alone for a while...?" He asked, his gaze never leaving the floor, his hair hanging in his face.

Molly bit her lip, "I'm so sorry, Steve..."

"Molly, please! I just...I just need to think for while."

With a hard swallow, Molly just climbed out of the ring and made her way out of the gym. As she left she hear Steve taping up his hands again and she knew he was going to need another punching bag.

* * *

Molly didn't see Steve for the rest of day. It didn't take a rocket scientist know that he was upset with her. Steve had dealt with the fact that basically everyone he knew was gone, and there Molly went telling him about Peggy Carter, the first woman that ever bothered to give him the time of day. She made all of these old feelings resurface, and it killed her knowing that she was what caused Steve's current mood. Molly understood that it was hard to get over that person, that first person that ever acted as a romantic interest. The way Steve and Peggy had to let go off each other probably made that even more difficult to get past, which is probably why Peggy never truly let go of Steve. She obviously moved on to love again, but Steve was always there, sitting in the back of her mind. Which was why her husband felt as though Peggy settled for second best, why Carter wasn't too fond of Steve.

After showering for quite some time, Molly made her way downstairs and hung out with the rest of the Avengers, plus Aida. They sat around and watched movies, played a few card games. Molly had even had a really great conversation with Natasha about their love for karaoke, and had decided that they were going to have to go out for that one night. When Molly got Aida alone, she told her about what happened, only to get a 'I told you so' like reaction out of her though she attempted to make it better by letting her know things would probably be fine.

Even after dinner and ever thing that occurred after that, Steve never came down. When everyone retreated to their rooms for the night, Molly remained downstairs. She put her _A League of Their Own_ DVD in and let the opening trailers or previews, whatever they were called, play through until the menu screen came to view. The redhead sat in the middle of the large black couch wrapped in a micro-fleece blanket with a glass of bourbon in her hand. Letting out a long, heavy sigh Molly just closed her eyes and took a long drink.

"You're too pretty to be drinking alone in the dark." The voice came up from the behind the couch, a voice that made Molly bite her lip. She turned slightly and looked over the back of the couch. A small, sad smile came to her lips.

"Hey." She didn't intend for her voice to come out so soft.

"Hey." His voice wasn't really all that loud either. The soldier made his way over and sat down beside her, closer to the arm of the sofa, rubbing the back of his neck.

Neither of them said anything for a minute, both of them filling the room with an awkward silence before they simultaneously blurted out, "I'm so sorry about earlier!" Molly blinked, looking at Steve with a small smile before letting out a small laugh.

Steve shook his head lightly, letting out a soft breathy chuckle. He looked over to her, his crystal blue eyes much softer than they had been when she last saw him. "I shouldn't have reacted that way earlier. I just-" he let out a sigh, looking at her with some form of desperate sadness in his eyes, "I just wasn't expecting you to bring it up. I wasn't expecting to hear about how Peggy moved on, about her daughter, about her grandson, about how you knew her. I was taken back. It brought back all of these feelings that I thought I let go and, and-" He stopped when Molly grabbed one his hands with her free one. Molly smiled at him, holding his hand in the most the comforting way that she could, he squeezed it lightly out of nervousness when she started talking.

"It's okay, Steve, I understand. It was a lot to process, but I should've told you sooner, that should've been one of the first things I got out of the way."

Steve shrugged a bit, shaking his head, "I never asked." He looked down to their hands and smiled softly, "I guess we're all right then, huh?"

Molly nodded, placing her drink on the coffee table, "That would be nice. This whole worrying over whether you're mad at me or not sorta drives me a little bonkers." Steve laughed again, causing Molly to smile.

Steve let go of Molly's hand and held his arm up a little and gestured for her to come over to him. "Come 'ere," She felt a faint blush rise to her cheeks as she scooted over and found herself nestled into Captain America's side, his arm around her. "Is this that movie you were telling me about?" He asked. Molly nodded against Steve's shoulder as she hit play. Steve rubbed Molly's arm lightly, before asking another question.

"Was she happy?" That was all he needed to know, if he knew that he would be just fine.

Molly nodded, "She was."

Steve nodded, relieved, "Good." He sighed, putting his feet up on an ottoman. They sat there watching the movie for a while before Steve spoke up again, "Hey Molly?"

"Yeah?" She answered, her eyes still on the television screen.

"Do you think we could go to Coney Island tomorrow?" Molly smiled and looked up him.

"I'd like that."

* * *

**A/N: **Well, there's that chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it, I figured I'd let their relationship blossom some. After mentioning Peggy last chapter I felt like it was odd for Steve not to mention her, so I figured I would address it. We're definitely going to learn more about the whole Carter situation in the future though! Thank you to everyone who favorited or added this story their alerts!

**Amber-Jade James** Thank you so much! Haha, I liked writing for Avery, he'll definitely be around in later chapters and more frequently in _Balance_ - which I hope you enjoyed! :)

**TARENasaurus** Thank you SO much! That really means a lot to me! When I first started writing it I was definitely concerned that it was going to be too much like other Cap fanfics out there, so I really appreciate your review. Considering that you said you usually only read nearly done fanfics, haha that makes me feel like I'm doing something good. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

**Anonymous** Thank you! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I had fun throwing in a little bit of Aida/Bruce in this one.

**Muggleborncutie** I'm SO excited for the wedding! That will be coming up in the next few chapters, I promise! Thanks for the review!

**hidansgirl1234 **Thank you so much! I hope you liked the chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

_Slower  
__But I can wait this out  
__Forming an orderly queue  
__Outside your house  
__I'm not even kiddin'_

Molly let out a loud groan and rolled over to answer her cell phone. "Hello?" She grumbled, not sounding very pleased. She heard a familiar voice chuckle on the other end. Molly rubbed her eyes and looked around, she was in her room. She must've fallen asleep during the movie last night and Steve carried her into her room. The thought of it made a small smile rise to Molly's lips.

"Well good morning to you too, beautiful." This voice was very smooth, playful, just deep enough to make a girl swoon but still very young sounding, not to mention heavy with an accent. She knew the owner of the voice as Carter Ferris. Her smile growing, Molly rolled back onto her back, closing her eyes.

"Do you know what time it is?"

"It's almost 7 am, love." Molly rolled her eyes beneath her eyelids. She was used to waking up early, her body woke up around then naturally. As much as she loved _Roll Up Your Sleeves_ from 'We Were Promised Jetpacks', that didn't mean she wanted to be awakened by it.

"Why are you calling so earlyyy?" She whined, stretching a little bit.

"I was going to tell you to get on your computer so we can video chat."

"Why?"

"Because I'd like to see your face while we speak."

"Gimme a reason."

"Because you're desperately in love with my dashing good looks."

Molly snorted, "You're so full of yourself." She told him, sitting up in her bed and reaching to get her laptop.

"If you truly had a problem with it, I doubt we would have gotten this far in life together."

"Good point." Molly pulled up the program and proceeded to called Carter, "Are we gonna stay on the phone while we do this? Because that's a little silly, Car." His face popped up on her screen and she smiled, hanging up her cell phone.

Carter was adorable. Well, he was actually very handsome, but that didn't stop Molly from calling him adorable. He had a strong jawline, a thick head of chocolatey brown hair and eyes to match. Two qualities that made him resemble his grandmother. His hair was short and currently tousled around, but it was long enough to run your hands through and mess up, something he hated it when people did. His accent was what Molly and a few others knew as a Boston Brahmin accent. Whereas Molly's was a strictly Bostonian one, you could hear Carter's English roots with just a little bit of Boston thrown in. Molly only knew a handle full of people that still had an accent like that, but unlike Carter they were all Boston born and bred-not to mention they were also older than her grandfather.

"Why are you shirtless?" Was Molly's greeting.

"I couldn't sleep." That basically meant Carter had been laying in bed, trying to sleep. He was a sleep without a shirt on guy.

"At all? It's like 6:45 and you're just now calling me?" She watched as Carter shrugged.

"If you ever checked your phone at all you would know I've been texting you all night."

Molly sighed, climbing out of her bed and turning her laptop around to face her closet. She was at least going to get her things together for the day while she was awake. "I was watching _A League of Their Own_."

"Without me?" Carter sounded completely outraged. They always watched that movie. He leaned back his desk chair, and watched as Molly did whatever she was doing in her closet. "So, how's the new job?" He asked her, suddenly the playful tone in his voice gone and replaced a serious one.

"I like it, he's a great guy. There are days where we have these lessons and he gets either appalled or pretty depressed, but the days where he's more fascinated are more common." She turned and smiled at the screen, "It's just kind of nice to be able to tell someone about all of this stuff and have them be so eager to learn it."

Carter had a stone expression on his face. He wasn't interested in hearing about Steve, Molly knew that. "That's nice, Moll."

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Molly turned fully to look at her laptop, "Are you gonna be happy for me or are you just going to be a complete prick about it for the rest of our lives?"

Carter rubbed his face, "Molly, you know how I feel about this. I'm glad you got the opportunity, but I'm not his fan."

Molly sighed again, turning back to her closet to pull out a few things. "We're going to Coney Island today."

"Isn't that place shut down?"

"I don't think so? I think it was, but think they reopened it a few years ago." As she dug through her closet to find amusement park/beach friendly clothes, she heard Carter typing about on his laptop.

"Ohp, well, you're in luck, Molly. They've been open for the past two years."

"Scoore." She sang.

"Which of your bathing whatever's are you gonna wear?"

Not turning back, Molly shrugged, "Well I only have two..."

"I feel like if you wear that one blue bikini thing you have you'll probably send him into cardiac arrest."

She turned around, "Carter! Be nice! He's still got the body of someone our age, so shut up."

"I'm justing saying. That one piece you have-the lighter blue one-that might be good."

"I'll do what I want."

Carter chuckled, causing Molly to smile. "Alright, Molly. I'll let you go back to sleep or let you plan your day or whatever. I'll see you soon though, right?"

"If you're going to the wedding, you will."

"Well I don't re - wait. That's the soonest you're coming back? You're not coming back for 4th of July with your family?"

"I'm kind of just playing my cards as they're dealt right now?" She looked at her screen, a confused expression on her face as she held her hands up in a very 'I don't know' manner. Carter laughed again.

"You know you're coming back for 4th of July. Nothing is more fun than drunk fireworks with your brother."

Molly tilted her head back. "You'd think the Marines would've done something for that boy." She didn't have to see the screen to know Carter was grinning.

"He's a little over 30, I think its safe to call him a man."

"Real men fight with homemade shields and roman candles?" Molly's family was a little strange. They had strange holiday rituals, they only got more outrageous when holidays involved fireworks.

"Exactly, who needs incredible strength and an indestructible shield when you have alcohol and explosives?" Molly shook her head at Carter's remark and gave him a look much like a mother would when she was telling a child to be nice.

Carter smiled again, "Alright, Molly, I'll see you soon."

Molly grinned at him, "Byyye Carter." She sang, causing her friend to smile and shake his head as he closed the phone call. Since Molly was already awake she just kept tending to what she was doing and proceeded to get ready for her little field trip with Steve.

* * *

Eventually Molly made her way down stairs for breakfast, where it had become a daily routine for make breakfast with Clint.

"Hey Molly, is everything okay?"

Molly looked at Clint confused, but she smiled anyway. "What do you mean?"

The archer shrugged, "I don't know, you seemed pretty down last night. Everything okay with Cap?" He looked at her with a smile, "I don't think it'll do much good but I could him with a few arrows if you'd like. I mean I'll probably get my ass kicked after that, but hey."

Molly giggled, "No, it's fine. Everything is okay now, I just brought up a couple things that he had to let sink in." Clint nodded in a way that told her he understood, "Besides, I don't think Natasha would like it if you stayed in one piece after that whole ordeal with Loki."

"You would be right." Natasha's voice rang through the room as she made her way toward the pair

Clint looked over and smiled, "Mornin' Tasha." One of Clint's arms found its way around Natasha's waist as he planted a kiss on her forehead. Molly smiled, the two of them had a very deep relationship, it was obvious that they cared for one another, but they seemed to keep the public displays limited, though as they grew to realize that the other occupants of the tower didn't seem to care they began to be more open about it. Well, at least within the team.

"So you're better?" Natasha asked, turning her attention toward Molly, who crinkled her eyebrows in despair.

"Was it really that obvious that I was bummed?"

Natasha let out a small laugh. Molly couldn't think of a time where she had heard Tasha let out more than a small feminine chuckle. The spy simply smiled at her fellow redhead, "You're usually a lot more social. Tony made a few jabs at you and you didn't even respond."

"And you cracked into my bourbon." Tony said into her ear from behind, causing Molly to jump. She turned slightly and looked at the billionaire who had snuck up on her. Pepper had been behind him with a mused smile on her face. Molly was still frazzled. "You people never come down here this early!" She punched Tony lightly in the shoulder, "And don't sneak up on me!"

Tony smirked and ruffled her hair before walking past and stealing a piece of freshly cooked bacon, "Are we going to have to smack some sense into Capsicle?" He teased, "I mean, what ever happened in those few short hours she went from being our precious little ray of sunshine to having some form of personal Boston Massacre."

Molly's shoulders slumped, "Guys, everything's just fine. I promise."

Enter Captain Rogers. _Awesome, right in the middle of the Captain America makes the new girl sad session. _Molly looked over to Steve, who had a very concerned expression on his face as he asked, "What's going on?"

Tony approached him, getting closer to Steve's face, "We're hear you like to make pretty girls that sound like sugar cry, Rogers. We don't take very kindly to that in these parts."

Steve looked over at Molly, his eyebrows raised and his eyes extremely worried, "I made you cry?"

Molly covered her face, "No, you didn't. Everyone is over reacting."

With a smirk, Tony patted Steve on the shoulder, "Don't get your panties in a twist, Betsey Ross, it's called a joke."

Steve ran a hand through his hair as he let out a relieved sigh before sitting at the table. It wasn't long after this that Molly and Clint had breakfast finished and Bruce strolled in to get a cup of tea and lean himself against a counter.

As they sat there eating breakfast, a sluggish Aida rolled in grabbed herself a cup of her own and sat at the table, grabbing a few pieces of bacon. Tony narrowed his eyes at her a little bit in a quizzical look, "Do you not eat before you come here?" He wasn't angry, he was obviously just poking fun, but how could she come in every morning and just eat? He blinked, "Are you even supposed to be here this early, ever? Do I pay you over time or something?"

Aida shrugged, her voice was filled with sleep, "I kinda just come in whenever. I clock in and out when I'm supposed to. I don't have a lab at home so I hang out here. Kinda like Pepper used too." Tony nodded.

"Alright, as long as I'm not paying you to sleep with Bruce." Aida's hands dropped to her lap and she just stopped what she was doing, she simply stared at a spot across from her with a deadpan expression, thoughts seeming to be running through her head. Her jaw tightened, before looking over at Tony. Anyone in the room could she the anger bubbling up in her eyes. Clearly Aida wasn't in the mood to joke this morning.

Steve sat there and pushed his last few pieces of pancake around his plate before breaking the silence, "So, uh, Molly and I are going to Coney Island today."

"That's nice, Steve." Aida didn't stop looking at Tony.

"Do you guys wanna come...?" Molly blinked as the words came out of Steve's mouth. _What?_

"I've never been to Coney Island before." Natasha looked to the rest of the group, the smallest bit of hope in her voice.

Bruce was busy observing Aida, concern filling his eyes. He left his spot on the counter to stand behind Aida where she sat, placing a hand on her shoulder. She visibly relaxed. "I think a day at the beach would be a good idea..." He added.

Pepper smiled and patted Tony's arm, "I think that sounds like a great plan, Steve."

The soldier smiled and went back to eating his breakfast.

* * *

Before heading out for the day with the team, Molly had gone upstairs to change. Incase they had decided on going to the beach while visiting Coney Island she decided to wear the blue strapless bandeau topped one piece Carter had mentioned earlier, she pulled a white lacy knee length skirt to her hips so that she could just easily change to wander around. Upon leaving her room, she found Steve leaning against the wall in their hall way, hopelessly fiddling with his fingers. When he heard her come out of her out of her room he found his way beside her as they walked toward the elevator.

"I'm sorry I kind of got everyone involved," he started. Originally the whole 'Could we go to Coney Island' thing was for the two of them, partially because he hadn't been their in over 70 years, but mostly because he had made her upset yesterday. During breakfast he saw Molly's confusion and assumed that had been the reason. "I just saw everyone getting hostile, well mostly Aida, and figured a good way to calm everyone down was to invite them along and they could relax for the day, y'know?"

Molly smiled. It actually made a lot of sense. It was nice that he wanted everyone to have a relaxing day. Not to mention he was genetically altered to be able to defuse a dangerous situation as quickly as possible. "It's okay! I'm sure everything'll work out just fine. Besides, it's not like we have to stick with the group the entire time."

Her answer made Steve smile. He was happy to hear that she wasn't upset with him or anything. That was the last thing he wanted.

* * *

The day at Coney Island was great. When they got there, Steve was obviously a little unsettled by all of the changes, but he was more than thrilled to see familiar things, especially the Nathan's stand. They started their day off at the beach, where the team all goofed around and had fun. Aida kept making jokes in Tony's general direction, telling him he wasn't allowed to get in the water, which ended in Aida getting thrown into the ocean.

After their beach fun, Molly and Steve just began wandering along the boardwalk, stopping at the Nathan's stand Steve had gotten so excited over.

"That stand has been here since I was kid," he told her before taking a bite of his hotdog. He let out a low groan. "And they still ha-" Steve stopped himself to swallow, realizing that he was talking with his mouth full. "And they still make the best hotdogs!"

Molly couldn't help but laugh. His excitement was all of the entertain Molly needed for the day. The day actually ended up being more of a history lesson for her in the long run. Every time Steve saw something he recognized he would start telling Molly stories about it from when he was a kid. It was actually really nice to see Steve in an environment he was kind of familiar with, and it was nice to get to know more about him and his childhood.

As the day got later, they came upon a roller coaster. The two just looked at it for a moment.

"The Cyclone..." Molly looked to Steve, tilting her head a bit in curiosity, "Do you wanna get on it?"

Steve scratched his neck lightly, "Last time I got on this, it was against my will and I threw up." It was actually kind of embarrassing for him to tell her. That can't be something that most dames want to hear from a guy, especially with how he was now.

Molly looked at him, concerned, "So that's a no, right? I'm pretty sure that hotdog won't taste half as good coming back up as it did going down."

"Actually... I think I'm feeling pretty adventurous today." He smiled a bit and looked at her with her a shrug, "I mean, unless you're not feeling up to it or anything."

Molly raised an eyebrow. Was Captain America _really_ trying to challenge her right now? A small smirk rose to her lips, "What are you tryin' to say, Rogers?"

With a grin on his face he shrugged once more, "I'm just saying if you don't think you can handle it we could always just pass." Molly just grabbed the soldiers hand and made her way toward the line.

* * *

"That roller coaster," Molly held onto Steve's arm as they walked away from the sight shortly after they got off the ride. She was stumbling just a little, Steve had actually managed just fine. He held her steady as they walked, laughing at her softly.

"You okay?" The small redhead simply propped her head against his bicep.

"So many drops." She mumbled, causing Steve to laugh. Molly looked up at him and smiled, "At least you didn't throw up this time, and you had me sit in the front."

"Last time I checked you were the one pulling me along."

Molly gave Steve an innocent look that almost made him blush, "I don't know what you're talking about." Steve chuckled and they continued walking the length of the boardwalk until they came across an arcade full of various games. Steve watched Molly's eyes light up though she didn't say anything.

"Do you wanna go in?"

Molly looked at him, almost jumping up and down, "Can we?" She asked, her excitement further showing as she smiled. Steve couldn't say no to that.

Returning the smile, Steve nodded, "Of course!" Molly let out a small squeal and almost ran into the arcade, exchanging several dollars for quarters.

Inside the arcade they actually found Aida at a crane game. Molly stood next to her, watching as Aida was trying to win a stuffed alligator. Molly blinked, "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Trying to win myself an alligator, of course." Aida replied, very concentrated on her movements.

"Where's Bruce?"

"I think he's getting me more quarters." Aida shrugged, as she dropped the claw onto the fluffy creature. Just as it was about to drop into the opening, the alligator dropped out of the machine's grasp. Aida let out a loud groan just as Bruce approached. Molly and Steve couldn't help but laugh.

Bruce blinked as he watch Aida try and fail once more, "...Do you want me to try?" He asked, only to get a look from Aida. Molly laughed and waved at them, figuring it was time to leave them be.

"We'll see you guys later." The pair received a simultaneous farewell as they walked off to find games of their own.

Molly had found herself occupied by skeeball whereas, like Aida, Steve had taken to the crane games. Just as Molly grabbed her tickets, Steve came up from behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to look at him, only to be greeted by a bright blue stuffed bear being offered to her by the super soldier himself. A large smile found its way to Molly's face.

"Y-you like bears, right?" He asked nervously, a small timid smile on his face, the smile only growing as the redhead hugged the toy to her person.

"I love bears!" Molly switched gears and wrapped her arms around Steve's torso, "Thank you so much, Steve!" Steve simply smiled and returned her hug. Molly was the first person he had ever won a prize for.

* * *

"So, you call rainbow sprinkles 'jimmies'...?" Steve couldn't get past the fact as he finished up his vanilla waffle cone. Molly let out an exasperated sigh, after swallowing a bite of her own cone. After they left the arcade they had gone to and ice cream stand, where Molly had ordered 'a small vanilla cone with rainbow jimmies'. Jimmies had been what Molly grew up calling sprinkles, but apparently this particular ice cream stand(and Steve) only recognized them as sprinkles.

"Yesss," she told him, dragging out her S. She finished her cone, "I don't know why that's so foreign everywhere I go, I swear it's not just a Boston thing."

"It probably is. I've only ever known the chocolate ones as jimmies."

"No, it doesn't matter if it's chocolate, rainbow or even dinosaur shaped, a jimmie is a jimmie!"

"They come in dinosaur shapes...?" They came to a stop once again, as they looked up at the now lit up Wonder Wheel. "Do you wanna get on the ferris wheel?" He asked, looking over to her. He smiled at the way the multi-colored lights reflected in her cobalt blues.

Molly nodded, "I've never been on a ferris wheel before."

Steve's eyebrows rose is shock, "Are you serious?" The redhead nodded again, "Why not?

She shrugged, "I don't know? Growing up I just never really had any desire to ride a ferris wheel. I kind of always got freaked out about what would happen if it stopped and I got stuck."

The man beside her couldn't help but laugh, he placed his hand on her back and began to lead her toward the line. "C'mon. You're not leaving without getting on a ferris wheel."

The two sat beside each other in the cart. This particular ferris wheel had two sections, a swinging and a fixed. Seeing as how this was Molly's first ferris wheel ride, Steve thought it would be best if she weren't rocking back and forth.

"I always really liked the ferris wheel," Steve told her, looking out at everything, "It was usually the only thing that didn't make me sick to my stomach." Molly looked over at Steve, smiling, then looking back out at the lit skyline. "It's also just really nice to sit back and look at everything from above, especially when it's all lit up like this." Steve continued, smiling as he looked at her. "You probably couldn't have picked a better time to ride one."

Molly smiled at his comment. He was right. The city, the park, the beach, everything looked so full of life from their point in the cart. It was almost like a different place. Steve watched her examine the view, his eyes softening. He hadn't realized it until just now, but her soft hand had made its way into his larger rough one. Glancing down to their hands, Steve couldn't help but blush. The young lady next to him looked at him, smiling softly though just enough for the dimples Steve admired to make themselves known. Steve couldn't find his words.

"I had a really nice day, Steve." She told him, her voice soft as she laced her slender fingers through his much more solid ones. Steve found himself squeezing her hand lightly.

"Me too, Molly."

It wasn't much longer until the ride had come full circle, the two exiting their cart still holding the other's hand. The only time Molly had released her hold on Steve's hand had been when the team had regrouped to head back to their home.

"Merry Christmas," Aida commented, shoving a small, stuffed Captain America into her friend's arms - which had caused Molly to release the soldier's hand. Steve had noticed Aida had gotten her alligator, probably because of Bruce, along with a stuffed Iron Man.

Noticing this toy in her hands, Tony lifted a teasing eyebrow at his employee with a smirk. Aida just looked at him and stuck her tongue out. "Don't flatter yourself. I wanted the Hulk."

Molly giggled at Aida's comment as she placed her hand back in Steve's. For the remainder of the evening, Steve hadn't let go of her hand. Not until they said good night before heading to there rooms.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you so much to those of you who reviewed! I went to the boardwalk with my brother a while ago so I felt sort of inspired to write a Coney Island chapter. My brother actually won me a stuffed Cap too, haha. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! In the next one we'll have a few little surprises here and there haha :)

Oh! Also, since I feel as though I need to start drawing more(I have to go back to school in a little more than a month), I think I'm going to start drawing up Molly and Aida. I'll let you guys know when I do!


End file.
